
i 




( uu 



Sermons and Sayings. 



BY 



REV. SAM P. JONES, 



OF GEORGIA. 



Cincinnati Music Hall Series. 



EDITED BY 



W. M. LEFTWICH, D. D. 



With an Introduction by I. W. Joyce, D. D. 




CRANSTON & STOWE, 
CINCINNATI. 

Phillips & Hunt, New York. 
1886. 



£]/-3 7?-7 




<j/.$eA> 




Copyright by 

CRANSTON <& STOWE, 

1886. 



INTRODUCTION. 



GOD is converting the world by the preaching of 
the Gospel, and at different periods in the his- 
tory of his Church he raises up men specially gifted 
in proclaiming the message of salvation to sinful 
men.x Such a man is the Rev. Sam P. Jones, 
who was born in the State of Alabama, and reared 
and educated in Cartersville, Georgia. He is the 
product of a noble ancestry. His father and mother 
were all that any son could desire, and the memory 
of their lives is a constant benediction on the heart 
of their son ; and in his devotion to God, and his 
eminent usefulness in the cause of Christ, he honors 
the names of those whose blood flows in his veins. 
He experienced the blessing of Christ's renewing 
and saving grace in 1872, and in the month of Oc- 
tober of that year he was admitted into the North 
Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, and sent to the Van Wert circuit, 
and for a period of eight years served as pastor of 
various circuits in his conference. In 1880, he felt 
that God called him to be an evangelist, and the 



4 Introduction. 

success that has attended his labors has led both 
him and his friends to believe that "the world is 
his parish." 

It is believed he is daily preaching to more peo- 
ple than any other minister in the United States of 
America. He has preached in the principal cities 
of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, 
and South Carolina ; also in the cities of Brooklyn, 
St. Louis, and Cincinnati, and in no place could 
buildings be found large enough to hold the congre- 
gations. 

He is now in the fortieth year of his age, and 
stands the peer of any man in his mastery of an 
audience, and in his influence over the multitudes 
attending his ministry, listening to his magnetic of- 
fering of the Gospel of Christ to all men. From 
January 11 to February 14, 1886, he conducted re- 
vival services in Cincinnati. He began his labors 
in Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, but within 
five days, one half the people desiring to hear him 
could not get into the building. The meetings were 
then transferred to Music Hall, which has a seat- 
ing capacity of six thousand, and that immense build- 
ing soon proved to be too small to accommodate the 
many thousands desiring to hear him. The closing 
night of his labors it was estimated that eight 
thousand people were crowded into the building, 
and although services were not to begin until 7.30, 



Introduction. 5 

the doors had to be closed at 6.30, and many thou- 
sands were turned away for lack of room. 

Mr. Jones's preaching is always in language that 
all the people can readily understand. It is pointed, 
plain, direct, and effective. His illustrations are 
new, and they never fail to accomplish what he in- 
tends. In his hands the Gospel has a new attrac- 
tion, and the Bible becomes a volume of wondrous 
power, possessing charms heretofore unknown. And 
the service of Jesus Christ is invested with a glory 
that commands the admiration, the love, and the 
obedient life of men. Mr. Jones is thoroughly con- 
secrated to the one work of saving men from sin; 
he makes all his studies and plans contribute to that 
end. He studies human nature ; he knows men. 
He has a kind heart, a gentle disposition. He loves 
the race of mankind for Christ's sake. He wants 
to do every body good. Amid all his success — and 
no man has ever had more — he is modest and 
humble and faithful; to use his own words, "It 
only makes me love my Savior the more, who has 
been so good to me, and who has done so much 
for me," 

The remarkable success attending his ministry, 
and the well-nigh universal desire to read his utter- 
ances, necessitates the publication of this the second 
series of his sermons and sayings. I trust they will 
have a circulation and a reading commensurate 



6 Introduction. 

with their worth and the good they must accomplish 
if their truth be accepted in the same loving- and 
devout spirit in which their author proclaimed it to 
the thousands who heard him. 

It is believed that during his stay in Cincinnati 
two hundred thousand people heard him preach the 
Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and 
the results have been greater than can be estimated. 
All the Church denominations of the city blended 
harmoniously and heartily in the work, consequently 
every Church in the city shared in the gathering 
into their respective communions of souls who had 
been aw r akened and brought to Christ during the 
progress of the great revival in Music Hall. 

I. W. J. 

Cincinnati, February, 1886. 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON I. 

PAGE. 

The City wholly given to Idolatry, 9 

SERMON II. 
No Man Wronged or Corrupted — "Quit Your Mean- 
ness," 30 

SERMON III. 
The Church in God, 50 

SERMON IV. 
Trust in God, and Do Right, 75 

SERMON V. 
The Loss of the Soul, 94 

SERMON VI. 
Cornelius, a Devout Man, 118 

SERMON VII. 
All Things Work Together for Good, 138 

SERMON VIII. 

Eternal Punishment, Or the Logic of Damnation, . . 156 

7 



8 Contents. 

SERMON IX. page. 
Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts,. . 169 

SERMON X. 
Law and Order — Help Each Other, 190 

SERMON XL 
Godliness and Life — Glory and Virtue, 214 

SERMON XII. 
The Wages of Sin, 237 

SERMON XIII. 
Saint Paul's Last Words, 257 

SERMON XIV. 
Escape for Thy Life, 279 



Skriveoist by Samuel W, Small. 
Deliverance from Bondage, 295 



SERMONS AND SAYINGS. 



Sermon I. 

THE CITY WHOLLY GIVEN TO IDOLATRY, 

" Now while Paul waited for them at Athens his spirit 
was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to 
idolatry." — Acts xvii, 16. 

I BELIEVE Saul of Tarsus was the greatest man 
in this world's history. When I measure his 
head I look and admire. When I measure his heart 
I am at a loss to know which is the greater, his 
head or his heart. It takes both head and heart to 
make a true man. If there was a leading char- 
acteristic in the life of this great man it was his 
sterling integrity, his downright honesty. There 
was never but one trouble in the mind of this great 
man, and that was touching the divinity of Christ. 
It took the biggest guns of heaven to arouse and 
convince him, but when once convinced he was 
loyal forever. I believe I am ready to say here in 
my place, that St. Paul being an honest man God 
put him straight once, and he never gave God a 
moment's trouble after that until God said : " It is 
enough ; come up higher." St. Paul was such a 
man as I would imitate. I admire his character, 



10 Sermons and Sayings. 

true, noble, courageous, honest. And now this man, 
waiting for his companions at Athens, sees the whole 
city given to idolatry. 

The charge that God brought against his ancient 
people was this : " My people will not consider." 
The etymological definition of that word is "to 
look at a thing until you see it." If we look at a 
landscape a glance will take in the main features, 
such as the mountain scenery, the stream, and the 
hamlet. A consideration or careful examination 
will show the foliage of the mountain trees, the road 
leading to the mansion, the cattle grazing on the 
hill slopes, and so on. There is a great difference 
between glancing at an object and considering it. 
St. Paul had considered the state of affairs in Athens, 
and his spirit was stirred within him when he saw 
how the whole city was given to idolatry. 

Now one of two things is true of this city to- 
night : either the eyes of Christian people are closed 
to the facts or else the facts are falsehoods ; one or 
the other. You can take whichever horn of the 
dilemma you please. I can take the daily papers 
of this city and read your local columns and see 
without getting at the Bible that it is wrong, that 
there is something radically wrong about it; there 
are too many debauched characters, too many sui- 
cides, too many murders, too many that are drifting 
dailv to destruction and ruin. The fact is, a man 
does n't need a Bible to see this world is all wrong; 
all you need to do is just to read your morning and 
afternoon papers, and then walk this street with 
your eyes open, and if you do that it will not be 



City Given to Idolatry. 11 

one week from to-day until you look on with horror 
that is indescribable. 

Now, let me ask each of you : Did you ever look 
at your heart until you saw it? I grant you that 
you have glanced at it a thousand times, but did 
you ever kneel down and pray for light, and look 
and look and look until you saw your heart? My 
Bible teaches me that : " The heart is deceitful above 
all things, and desperately wicked." My Bible 
teaches me : " Keep thy heart with all diligence, for 
out of it are the issues of life." My Bible teaches 
me : " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
see God." 

I once saw a pictorial representation of the hu- 
man heart. It represented the sinner's heart; full 
of all kinds of wild beasts, reptiles and unclean 
birds — a hideous sight to look upon. Then there 
was the heart under conviction of sin, with the 
heads of all these animals turned outward as if they 
were getting ready to leave. Then I saw the heart 
converted, cleansed, and it was represented with a 
shining light and a cross. I saw also the back- 
slider's heart, with the heads of all the beasts and 
reptiles as if they had turned backward, and I saw 
the apostate's heart — a perfidious heart — as it was 
filled to overflowing with all manner of horrid 
things ; and the last state of that man was worse 
than the first. 

O, the heart! the heart! This world reminds 
me in some of its phases of the man down in the 
spring branch trying to clear the water, so he could 
get a clear drink. He was doing all he could to 



12 Sermons and Sayings. 

filter and clear the water when some friend called 
out to him : " Stranger, come up a little higher and 
run that hog out of that spring, and it will clear it- 
self." No trouble then. And I declare to you to- 
night, the hardest job man ever undertook in this 
world is to lift up his life while he has an unclean 
heart. 

There is no such thing as a clean life outside of 
a clean heart. I know we have what we call moral 
men, but I do n't believe you can separate morals 
and Christianity. In fact, the morals of this world 
are the paraphernalia of Christianity. The man who 
is moral in the sense that he will pay his debts and 
tell the truth, and that sort of thing, may be a villain 
at heart. Our Savior looked at the most moral men 
this world ever saw, and said : " You whitewashed 
rascals, you ! " That is our version. His version was : 
"Ye whited sepulchers!" I had rather be called 
the former. 

And I want to say to you men that do n't profess 
to be Christians, I do n't bring a railing charge 
against you. In the life of Jesus Christ not a single 
harsh word ever escaped his lips toward a sinner. 
When Jesus would talk with a sinner, he would fetch 
up the parable of the lost sheep, where the man left 
the ninety and nine safe in the fold and followed the 
poor, wandering sheep, and when he found it he 
did n't take a club and beat it back home, but picked 
up the poor, tired, hungry sheep and laid it on his 
shoulder and brought it back to the fold. But I tell 
you one thing. The Lord Jesus himself never lost 
a chance to pour hot shot and grape and canister 



City Given to Idolatry. 13 

into the Scribes and Pharaisees, and they are the 
gentlemen I am after, begging your pardon. Now, 
if the sinners about this town want to go to theaters, 
and want to dance and want to play cards and want 
to curse and want to live licentious lives, I say, " Go 
it. Go it, boys; " but if you members of the Church 
want to do it, I will brand you as hypocrites until 
you renounce your faith in Christ and have your 
name taken off the Church books. I Ve got a right 
to say a few things along there, and neither this 
world, nor the flesh, nor the devil, will interpose any 
objection. Do n't any body say I interposed an ob- 
jection to any man who do n't profess to be a Chris- 
tian, or placed any obstacle in the way of his doing 
just as he pleases. We will attend to your case 
later, but now I want to look in the faces of men 
who have made their vows and their promises to 
God, and who have sworn eternal allegiance to Jesus 
Christ, whose lives are a shame to the Gospel and a 
disgrace to the character they profess. That 's it. 

Now let us look at our hearts. I believe this 
incident, related of Mr. Moody, will illustrate the 
point I am on. On one occasion, when he had in- 
vited penitents to the altar, there came forward a 
great many, and he walked back two or three pews 
to where two Christian ladies were sitting, and he 
said: "My sisters, will you walk forward and talk 
to those penitents ? " They looked up at him and 
said, "No, sir, Mr. Moody; we are praying for you." 
"Praying for me," he said. "Am I not trying to 
live right and get to heaven ? " " Yes, Mr. Moody ; 
but we are praying that you may have a clean heart." 



14 Sermons and Sayings. 

And he said conviction entered his spirit in a mo- 
ment, and he dismissed the services later and went 
home and fell down on his knees and prayed, 
" Lord God, show me my heart. Let me see it as 
it is." And he said, " When the light of heaven 
poured in upon my heart I saw it was full of Moody, 
and full of selfishness, and full of worldly pride ; and 
then I said, ( Lord God, help me to 

" ' Cast every idol out 
That dares to rival thee.' 

" And," said he, " the Lord came and washed out 
all unrighteousness from my heart, and from that 
day until now I have never preached a sermon that 
did n't win souls to Christ." And I declare to you, 
if Jesus had in this town an army of pure blood- 
washed hearts we could win this whole city to Christ. 
And never, never, never will we accomplish the 
work and bring the world to Christ until we, who 
profess Christ, arouse ourselves and wake up and 
shake the deviPs fleas off ourselves and get to be 
decent. 

I can stand any thing better than I can stand a 
hypocrite. I always did have a hatred for shams 
and humbugs and cheats, and of all the humbugs 
that ever cursed the universe, I reckon the religious 
humbug is the humbuggest. And I tell you when 
a fellow gets a little Methodism in him, and a little 
of theaters, and a little card playing, and a little of 
almost every thing, and is made up out of a hundred 
different sorts of things, then he is a first-class hum- 
bug in every sense of the word. He is just good 
anywhere. 



City Given to Idolatry. 15 

O, my heart! With the heart right, with the 
fountain clear, the stream will be clear. With 
a good tree the fruit will be good. And I declare 
to you to-night that the hardest work a man ever 
tried to do is to be a Christian without religion ; to 
be a good man with a bad heart. 

Why there are just scores sitting in front of me 
to-night that if it were literally true that we have 
wild beasts and serpents and other venomous things 
in bodily form in our hearts, as they are typically 
there, I would hate to be close round some of you, 
for fear I might get bit before I could get out of 
the way. O, God, give us clean hearts and clean 
hands. 

And then I will say, to be practical all along the 
line, did you ever look at your tongue until you 
saw that ? O, these tongues of ours ! These tongues 
of ours ! We Methodists pour the water on, and 
the Presbyterians sprinkle it on, and the Baptists 
put us clean under, but I do n ? t care whether you 
sprinkle, or pour, or immerse, the tongue comes out as 
dry as powder. Did you ever see a baptized tongue? 
Say, did you? Did you ever see a tongue that be- 
longed to the Church ? You will generally find the 
tongue among man's reserved rights. There come 
in some reservations, and always where there is a 
reservation the tongue is retained. The tongue ! 
The tongue ! The tongue ! Pambus, one of the 
middle-age saints, went to his neighbor with a 
Bible in his hand and told him: "I want you to 
read me a verse of Scripture every day. I can ; t 
read, and I want you to read to me," So the 



16 Sermons and Sayings. 

neighbor opened the Bible and read these words : 
" I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with 
my tongue." 

Pambus took the book out of his hand and walked 
back home, and about a week after that the neigh- 
bor met him, and he said : " Pambus, I thought you 
were to come back and let me read you a passage 
of Scripture every day?" and Pambus said: "Do 
you recollect that verse you read to me the other 
day?" "No," said the neighbor. "Well," said 
Pambus, " I will quote it : i I will take heed to my 
ways that I sin not with my tongue/ And," he 
said, " I never intend to learn another passage of 
Scripture until I learn to live that one." O that every 
man, woman, and child in this house to-night would 
go away from here determined to live that passage 
of Scripture : " I said, I will take heed to my ways 
that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my 
tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile." 
O me ! Shakspeare told a great truth when he said : 

" Who steals my purse steals trash, .... 
But he that filches from me my good name 
Eobs me of that which not enriches him, 
And makes me poor indeed.' ' 

These violators of character — I will venture the 
assertion there are many, many, many here to-night — 
if every word you said about people in this house 
were posted up there in legible words, here to-night, 
you would immediately leave this house and never 
be seen in public again. "We ain't going any- 
where where they put up every thing we say for 
folks to look at." Now, I look at my tongue till I 



City Given to Idolatry. 17 

see it. There is many a man that in other things 
may do well that at last will lie down in hell for- 
ever, and say : "I am conscious I am tongue- 
damned. I would have gone to heaven if I had n't 
had a tongue." 

My tongue ! And I say to you to-night the 
best thing we can do with our tongues is to speak 
well and to speak kindly of all men. I dare assert 
here in my place, when you take me from this 
sacred stand that I occupy, I defy you to put your 
finger on a word of mine against the character or 
reputation of any body. But I am not talking for 
myself up here. Understand that. Once in Jeru- 
salem a great crowd — it was 1,800 years and more 
ago, as the legend goes, or the allegory — a great 
crowd was gathered in Jerusalem, and they were 
gathered around a dead dog, and they stood and 
looked, and one of them said : " That is the ugliest 
dog I ever saw." Another said : " O, he is not 
only the ugliest dog I ever saw, but I do n't be- 
lieve his old hide is worth taking off of him." 
Another said, " Just look how crooked his legs are." 
And so they criticised the poor dog. And directly 
one spoke up and said, " Ain't those the prettiest 
pearly white teeth you ever looked at?" And they 
walked off and said : u That must have been Jesus 
of Nazareth that could have found something good 
to say about a dead dog." O, me ! I like those 
people that always try to see something kind in 
people in their ways and walks of life. 

And then, I ask you again, did you ever look at 
your feet until you saw them? There is a good 



18 Sekmons and Sayings. 

deal in that. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet 
and a light unto my path." O, Lord God! I 
would follow in the footsteps of Him who led the 
way to heaven. There is no circumspect Christian 
who does not see to it that his feet are kept in the 
narrow way that leads from earth to heaven. A 
Methodist, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, a Catholic in a 
ball-room ! Their feet, that they have pledged should 
follow in the footsteps of Christ, are there cutting 
the pigeon-wing to music ! Now what do you 
think of that ? 

And I hear this expression : They say, " Well, 
our Church do n't object to it." Now, I would say 
a very strong thing here — and I hope you will take 
it in the very spirit in which I say it, for I never 
said a kinder thing or a harder thing than that — 
you never shall hear a truer thing. Whenever a 
Presbyterian, or a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a 
Christian, or a Congregationalist, or a Catholic says 
that their Church don't object to dancing and 
theaters, and all such things as that, they could not 
tell a bigger lie if they would try in a hundred 
years! Thank God, there is not a Church named 
after Christ on earth that has not thundered out after 
these things with all the power they have got. 

"Our Church don't object." Well, now, the 
Episcopal Church being a Church in authority, how 
they did thunder against these worldly amusements? 
That little Church you belong to may not. That 
rotten little thing! I would not stay in it long 
enough to get my hat if it did n't. 

I was sitting in a train some time ago, and the 



City Given to Idolatky. 19 

train rolled up to the station, and just up on the 
platform, near by, were three ladies. One of the 
ladies said to the other: "Are you going to the 
ball to-night?" The other lady said "I ain't go- 
ing." " But," she said, " I forgot ; you are a Meth- 
odist, and you don't go to such places. I would 
not be a Methodist. I want to enjoy myself." 
The other said, " Yes, I am a Methodist, and, thank 
God ! I do n't want to go to such places." " O," 
said the other one, " I would not be a Methodist." 
And the train rolled off, and I felt like jumping on 
the top of that train myself and hollering, " Hur- 
rah for Methodism !" And whenever she goes into 
copartnership with ball-rooms, and with all of the 
worldly amusements that embarrass the Christian 
and paralyze his power — whenever the Methodist 
Church goes into copartnership with these things I 
will sever my connection with her forever. And I 
love her and honor her to-day because she has stood 
like a bulwark against these things, and denounced 
them from first to last. 

One of the honored preachers of this town, a 
man whose good opinion I value highly, one of 
the noblest, truest ministers of this town, said to 
me : "I declare to you, our Churches are little more 
than a graveyard. We have been killed and almost 
buried by this tide of worldliness that has swept 
over our homes year after year." And that is the 
truth. And I can read a ten-page letter that I got 
from a citizen to-day, and turn every face in this 
house as pale as death. That man wrote as if he 
knew what he was talking about. There is many a 



20 Sermons and Sayings. 

mother at twelve o'clock at night, in this town, that 

can sing with the blood trickling in her heart, 

"O, where is my wandering boy to-night? 
He was once as pure as the driven snow." 

And O, why, why, why would I take this car- 
cass, and that carcass, and the other carcass that are 
so offensive? Why would I bring them out before 
this congregation ? Nothing would make me do it 
but to get you to take those carcasses that are de- 
spoiling the very odors of your city, and bury them 
out of sight forever. That is it. You all have 
spent two or three nights looking at me. God help 
you to look at yourselves awhile. And you will 
think I am a beauty before you get through. I look 
at myself from head to foot — my hands, my heart, 
my feet, my tongue. I look at my ways and walks 
and character in this community. Did you ever look 
at yourself as a member of the Church? Did you 
ever wake up some morning and shut your eyes and 
lie there and say, " Well, suppose every member of 
the Church in town were just like me, what sort of a 
Church would we have? Suppose every member 
of the Church in town prayed as little as I pray, 
what sort of a Church would we have? Suppose 
every member of the Church in town paid as little 
as I pay, how long before the whole thing would be 
sold out by the sheriff?" 

O, my brother! it is well enough now and then 
for a fellow to get a square, honest look at himself. 
What sort of a Methodist are you ? There is a man 
that has promised to renounce the world, the flesh 
and the devil and the vain pomp and glory of the 



City Given to Idolatry. 21 



world, and he has promised on oath, before God 
and man, not to follow or be led by them. What 
is your life ? There is that Presbyterian, consecrated 
to God by the most solemn ceremony that heaven 
ever witnessed. Now, what is your character? 
There is the Episcopalian ; with the imposing hands 
of the bishop laid upon his head, and with a cere- 
mony as solemn as eternity, he was dedicated in the 
Church to God last night, and to-night he is in the 
biggest ball in town, dancing his way to hell. 

And no longer than this very year, in one of 
the cities of the South, one gentleman told me this : 
Said he : "I saw the Episcopal bishop lay his hands 
on the heads of a class of twenty, one night, and the 
next night eighteen out of that twenty were at a 
magnificent ball." Now you say, " I would n't have 
done that ; I would have waited a week." Well, if a 
fellow is going to do it at all, he had better get right 
at it. Do n't you think that 's so ? How long ought 
a fellow to wait after he joins the Church before he 
goes to his devilment? Now that's it. 

I wish I could get all the Methodists and Baptists 
and Presbyterians in this city, and all other Churches, 
to live just as they promised to live. I wish I 
could get all the Episcopalians in town to be as 
good out of Lent as they are in Lent. That would 
be good would n ? t it ? And I never could see why 
a fellow ought not to be as good one time as another. 
Did you? I never could. And I'm going to be 
just as good the year round as any Episcopalian in 
this town is during Lent. I reckon they all hope to 
die in Lent. If a heap of them die out of Lent the 



22 Sermons and Sayings. 

devil will get them, in my judgment. In a great 
many places they dance Lent in and they dance it 
out. Like the Irishman talking about holidays in 
America — said he " Instead of hanging our heads 
and sorrowing over the crucifixion of our Savior, 
we Americans fire it in and fire it out." 

Now, I do n't pick out any denominations and 
say any thing about one denomination that I would 
not say about another. There is no denomination- 
alism in this. I have no purpose and no desire in 
my heart to say one thing about one denomination 
that I would not say against another. That is true. 
I am just talking true things, and any night you 
come here if you do n't like the way this is rattled 
off you can rack out of here just the minute you 
please. For I propose, God being my helper, to 
speak the truth as I see it, and I do n't care what 
men or devils or cities or earth or hell may say, I 
am going to preach, while I do preach, what I be- 
lieve to be the truth. 

And I will tell you Christian people, if you 
think the devil is going to surrender any ground in 
this town until every inch is covered with blood 
you do not know the devil as well as I do. I will 
tell you that. I have been fighting his majesty 
several years, and I declare to you that he is always 
ready for a fight. He has possessed nearly two- 
thirds of this city for nearly forty years, and if you 
think he is going to make a voluntary surrender of 
his territory you do not know him. He is going 
to fight and fight, and every child he has got is 
going to help him ; you can put that down. And 



City Given to Xdolatby. 23 

I tell you there is another thing; there is a heap of 
members of the Church going to help him, too. 
They will that. Some places the devil goes to he 
never has any thing to do himself. He puts his 
hands in his pockets and goes round and gets mem- 
bers of the Church to run his devilment for him. 
They do his work cheaper for him than any other 
class. He does n't have to pay them, and they board 
themselves. In some towns the leading ball-room 
dude is a member of the Church — the fellow that gets 
them all up and runs the thing. 

I look at myself as a member of the Church. 
O me, brother ! when you see yourself as a membei 
of the Church, as a professor of religion, it will do 
you good. I will ask you again, did you ever look 
at yourself as a father ? O me ! how close you get 
to a man's heart when you talk to him of his family. 
Brother and sister, did you ever have your innocent 
child sit on your lap, put its little arms round your 
neck and imprint the kiss of innocence on your 
cheek? Have you ever looked on your lovely 
children lying in their bed and said : " Of all chil- 
dren God ever gave, my children have the purest 
and best of fathers ? " You can go home to-night 
and wake up your little Willie. Get him quite 
awake and ask him " Who is the best man in this 
city?" He will answer, " Why, you, papa." Ask 
him, " Whom would you rather be most like?" and 
he will reply, " Why, you, papa." Ask him who 
is the the best man in the world, and he will say, 
" Why, you, papa." He has got no sense. And 
that is why we curse, and damn, and ruin our 



24 Sermons and Sayings. 

children. They can see no harm in us, and just as 
we do they will follow and imitate us. A single 
man may drink as a single man, he may swear as 
a single man, he may lead a godless life as a single 
man ; but as a married man you had better call a 
halt, and ask where you are leading your children 
to day by day. You may sit in the chairs of this 
hall night after night; you may simply have your 
curiosity excited; you may simply come here to 
laugh, but when you gather your children in your 
arms and see that your bad example is leading them 
to death and hell there is no joke about that — no 
laugh about that! God pity me and pity you in 
our relations towards those that lean upon us; and 
if there is any fact in my history I bless God for in 
my heart to-night, it is the fact that not a sweet child 
of mine ever looked in my face when I was not a 
Christian, trying to serve God and set it a good ex- 
ample. 

Did you ever look at yourself as a mother? Of 
all beings that earth claims its blessings from, it 
looks as though a mother ought to be the best. 
Mother, what is your life before your children? 
Consider yourself! Did you ever look at your chil- 
dren till you saw them? Wife, did you ever look 
at your husband till you saw him? Husband, did 
you ever look at your wife until you saw her? If 
there is any body in the world I would have get to 
heaven, it is my wife ; and there is a husband who 
never talked ten minutes to his wife on religion ; 
and there is a wife who never opened her mouth to 
her husband about the way of life. O me ! when 



City Given to Idolatry. 25 

we think of a home that has been Christless, what 
a sad thing ! 

And then we ask you again, did you ever look 
at this city until you saw it? Did you ever take it 
by streets and blocks? Did you ever count the 
bar-rooms in this town? Did you ever count the 
beer-gardens in this town? Did you ever count the 
number of men that went in and out of the bar- 
rooms and beer gardens? I bring this question 
square before you. Did you ever count the number 
of soiled doves that curse this city and curse them- 
selves ? O my God, when we look at these pictures 
we have to shut our eyes and drop down upon our 
knees. We say, " God deliver us and God speed 
us." Did you ever count the billiard-tables in this 
town? Did you ever count the gambling hells in 
this town ? No wonder this one writes and that 
one writes, " Jones, God bless you! turn loose your 
guns, and do your best to wake up the Christian 
people and show them how this town by streets and 
blocks is drifting to hell every day." 

Now, I am going to stick to truth while I am 
here, and I say to every man and to every influence 
in this town unfriendly to Christ and unfriendly to 
the Bible to fight back. I do not look for any 
thing else. I want to say right now that I like to 
see things moving up, and if you can say any thing 
worse of me than I can of you, lamm in, and I will 
beat you to the tank in that line, may be. Pick 
every flaw you can in every sermon, and if I can 
not pick more flaws in your life than you do in my 
sermons, I will yield the feather to you. I say to 



26 Sermons and Sayings. 

you now, we propose to get your eyes open so that 
you can see yourselves. That is the first sight you 
ought to look at. Then look at St. Paul. When 
he went to the city of Athens, so wholly given to 
idolatry, it stirred his heart within him. I have 
heard Christian people say that they had no feeling, 
no enthusiasm, no religious fervor, but never since 
I joined Christ' s Church have I been devoid of re- 
ligious fervor and enthusiasm. The man who goes 
about like a corpse, with no feeling, no enthusiasm, 
that man is either dead to all intents and purposes, 
or he has closed his eyes to what is going on about 
him. When that great man visited the city of 
Athens, so wholly given to idolatry, it stirred his 
heart within him. And he went over to Mars' 
Hill, pointed to the inscription, "to an unknown 
God/' and preached that grand sermon generated in 
his soul as he walked through the streets of the city 
and saw that it was wholly given to idolatry ; and 
I tell you to night, when we see ourselves and our 
city and our surroundings as they are, there is hope 
for us. 

There is just one thing more I want you to do — 
that is, to see the cross. It is the hope of the 
world. It is the balm of Gilead. It has the power 
to save. It is the redemption of the race. O, my 
brother, that fourteen years ago and a few days I, 
a poor, wretched, ruined, lost sinner, walked up to 
see my father die. O, how I loved that father, and 
how I broke his heart. I have wished a thousand 
times that I had my father back just one hour that 
I might lean my head on his bosom and hear him 



City Given to Idolatry. 27 

speak the words of kindness and advice he has 
spoken to me in the past. As I stood by his dying 
couch he took my hand in his bony hand, and a 
heavenly smile rested on his face just before he 
passed out of this world. He did not die; he did 
not die. His faculties were as bright and his hope 
as buoyant in the very agonies of death as they ever 
had been. As I took his bony hand he said, " My 
poor, wayward, godless boy! You have almost 
broken my heart, and you have given me so much 
trouble! Won't you tell your dying father, now, 
that you will meet him in the good world?" I 
stood there for a moment convulsed from head to 
foot. I said, " Yes, father, I will meet you in the 
good world." I turned away from that dying couch, 
and every step I have made from that time to this 
has been toward the good world. And I mean, 
with the grace of God, to keep my promise. I left 
that bed a wretched sinner, and looked to God. I 
looked up there and 

I saw one hanging on the tree 

In agonies of blood, 
He fixed his languid eyes on me, 

As near his cross I stood. 

Sure, never, to my latest breath 

Can I forget that look ; 
He seemed to charge me with his death, 

Though not a word he spoke. 

A second look he gave, which said: 

" I freely all forgive, 
My blood is shed to ransom thee, 

I die that you may lire." 

Blessed Christ, live forever to save dying men. 



28 Sermons and Sayings. 



SAYINGS 



Paralyzing Sins. — You say, " Jones, why do n't 
you preach against stealing, lying, and drunken- 
ness*?^ It is because that ain't hurting: the 
Church. Nobody has any respect for you old red- 
nosed devils in the Church. They do n't notice 
you. They have got no respect for you. Nobody 
has any respect for you if you are a liar. Nobody 
bothers with you if you steal. Nobody cares any 
thing about you. I will tell you it is n't lying, stealing 
and drunkenness that is cursing the Church and 
paralyzing her power and ruining the Church of 
God. It is these worldly amusements that are 
sweeping over our homes and Churches, and par- 
alyzing us and making us to-day little better 
than a grave-yard. That is it. I never saw a 
spiritual man in my life that would stand up and 
ask me, "Do you think there is any harm in the 
dance ?" Why do n't you ask me if I think there 
is any harm in a prayer-meeting, or I think there is 
any harm in family prayer ? You know there is n't. 
And when ever you hear a fellow asking if there is 
any harm in a dance, you can reply: "You lying 
old rascal, you know there is." 

The "Thirty." — When I was in St. Joseph 
preaching, there was a story in the morning papers 
to the following effect: "Jones is not doing much 
with the Thirty." The next morning I would see: 
"The Thirty were pretty well represented at the 
meeting." I said to my friends, " What does this 



City Given to Idolatry. 29 

1 thirty 9 business mean?" "O," they said, " there 
are in this city thirty millionaires — thirty men of 
the world, worth over a million." These things 
were against them. Some of those men I found to 
be true, noble, Christly, and generous, but those 
who were not we did not make much impression 
upon. One of the old millionaires who professed 
religion joined the Church. Afterward I said to 
him : " Well, my brother, you have disposed of your 
soul, you have given it to God, but you have a heap 
harder job left before you — what to do with your 
money. You had better begin to unload now. Shell 
out now, for if you are ever dammed it will be by 
your money. Mark what I tell you." If I had 
one-tenth of the money some members of the Church 
have in this town, and I did not do any better with 
it than they do, the devil would get me as certain 
as my name is Sam Jones. And if you have got as 
much sense as I have and you do n't get up from 
where you are, the devil will get you too ; you can 
put that down. 



Sermon II. 

NO MAN WRONGED OR CORRUPTED-" QUIT 
YOUR MEANNESS." 

"Receive us: we have wronged no man, we have cor- 
rupted no man; we have defrauded no man. 7 ' — 2 Cor. vii, 2. 

ST. PAUL knocked at the inner door of the 
Church of Corinth. He was met by that Church, 
and he was asked: a Upon what ground do you de- 
mand so great a privilege?" And he replied, "On 
the grounds, first, I have wronged no man with my 
tongue. I have corrupted no man by my example. 
I have defrauded no man in any business transac- 
tion." Jesus Christ watched the doors of his king- 
dom when he stood among men, with the most 
uncompromising and most untiring scrutiny. And 
when the young man approached Christ, and would 
have entered the kingdom, and Jesus looked upon 
him as he asked the question : " What must I do 
that I can get into the kingdom?" Jesus looked 
at him and said: "Keep the commandments." The 
young man said, exultingly: "Why, Master, all 
these have I kept from my youth up." And Jesus 
looked him in the face, and said : " One thing thou 
lackest yet," and the young man walked away. I 
suppose his disciples, if they had been as worldly 
as we are, would have said : " Master, that 's a 
magnificent young man. He's a very rich young 
man. He stands well in the community, and if he 
only lacks one thing let y s take him in. He will 
30 



"Quit Your Meanness." 31 

give tone to the Church, and he will pay largely. 
We have few members of that sort, and he ; s got 
money to pay our expenses. Why, Master, if he 
lacks but one thing let 's take him in." "One 
thing thou lackest yet," said Christ, and the young 
man turned and went away, and that's the last he 
heard of him. The disciples caught at the same 
spirit and taught men this : that you must deny 
yourself and take up your cross and follow Christ. 
They taught us if any man love the world the love 
of God is not in him; if any man have not the 
Spirit of Christ he is none of his. 

A large Church membership does not mean 
much here now. It does not mean much any- 
where, under any circumstances, and I thank God 
that with the state of things I now find in existence 
everywhere it doesn't amount to much with this 
world, to say the least of it. We ought to quit ask- 
ing the question, " What Church do you belong 
to?" but we ought to ask, "How do you live now? 
How have you been doing? Do you pay your 
debts? Do you live right, and live good, and keep 
the commandments ?" Brethren, an open profession, 
an outward profession, that is n't backed up by the 
possession of the principles of Christianity, is not 
worth the paper your name is enrolled on. I want 
to see the day in this country when Church mem- 
bership means consecration, righteousness, and 
godliness. 

I ? m a natural, innate, constitutional inborn 
hater of shams and humbugs, and above all hum- 
bugs that ever cursed this world, the religious 



32 Sermons and Sayings. 

humbug is the biggest. That's so. I will give 
you a little illustration : At Harvard, I believe it 
was, there was in the college an old professor, one 
of those thick-glassed old fellows, near-sighted, who 
was a wonderful bugologist. He knew bugology 
better than he did manology, and he was acquainted 
with all the bugs from Adam down, and he had all 
kinds of them in frames hung up around his office. 
In their mischief, and as a joke, the students got 
the body of one bug, and took the legs of another 
and the head of another and the wings of another, 
and put them together just like as if nature had 
formed it that way, and they all trooped down- 
stairs together into the old professor's room, and one 
of the boys says: " Professor, what kind of a bug 
is this?" and the professor stood up and took the 
card on which the bug was pinned, and he cast his 
eyes on it, and after looking at it awhile he said: 
" Gentlemen, this is a humbug.' Now you have my 
idea of a humbug. It 's a fellow that has a heart 
that belongs to the Church, and a head that is run 
by the world, and his hands by the devil, and he 's 
just nothing but a sort of a compound. God deliver 
us from humbugs in the Church! Let's be only 
one of a kind, and let that be a good Christian. 
If I were asked now what is the trouble in Cincin- 
nati — the greatest trouble — a trouble you can 't 
overcome as easily as other troubles — I believe I 
would answer that the greatest trouble in Cincinnati 
is, that you have too many Churches here. 

I don't mean to say there are too many build- 
ings or too many pastors. I would not tear down 



"Quit Your Meanness." 33 

a church in this city, nor hush the voice of a single 
preacher. I would not demolish a single Church 
organization in the town, but I '11 tell you the 
trouble. I will take this Church here for an illus- 
tration. Your minister, you know, is the pastor of 
two Churches, and he has a hard time of it, too, I 
tell you, for one Church is about as much as any 
preacher can look after. The one Church you have 
has an enrolled list of members, but you have a 
Church on the inside of that, and whenever a man 
gets on the inside of the inside Church, then he can 
talk about the communion of saints and fellowship 
of the Spirit, and walk with God. A man who gets 
inside of the inside of a Church is safe for all time. 
But how many get in there? I reckon, if you would 
call a meeting of the truly spiritual members, you 
could hold it in some little side room. You wouldn't 
have to call it in this great room. It would be lost 
here. A double handful of your truly spiritual 
members would look lonely in here, and you would 
have to get them in the parlor. That 's a bad state 
of things. How many men in this Church — and 
there is no better Church in the city — love God 
with all their hearts, and love their neighbors as 
themselves ? 

I am willing for any body to have more money 
than I have, and more land than I ever expect to 
have, and more stocks and bonds than I can ever 
get, but I ain't willing for any man that walks this 
earth to have more religion than I have. I can get 
as much as a soul full, and that 's about as much as 
an angel can get. If I am a Christian, I will be a 



34 Sermons and Sayings. 

Christian; if I am a Methodist, I'll be a Methodist; 
if I 'in a Presbyterian, I '11 be a Presbyterian ; and 
if I 'm a Baptist, I 'm a-going to be one all over, 
through and through; but I wouldn't be a little, 
old, dried-up, knock-kneed, one-horse, shriveled 
nothing anywhere. Have n't you ever felt some 
time away down in your soul that you wanted to 
get above every thing ? Have n't you had a desire 
to rise up above the sight of this kind of little fellows, 
that you can put twenty of them in a sardine-box? 
Have n't you ever had a glorious feeling in your 
soul that made you feel for a minute as if you 
wanted to be a whale? You have never known 
much about religion if you never felt in your soul 
as if you wanted to be somebody — something — so 
big that you feel as if you could fly up, and up, 
and up; then you can know something about what 
religion is. 

Religion's a grand thing. There is nothing on 
earth like it, and nothing in heaven better than re- 
ligion. A poor, tempest-tossed, tempest-driven soul, 
thrown hither and thither in helpless wandering, tired, 
restless, and hungry, finds a haven there. O! how 
dark it was once for me; how hungry this poor soul 
was once. How like the crest of a wave! I knew 
no rest. But I found it in religion. Religion ! 
Religion! It's a great word. In its etymological 
sense it means that there is something in this small 
universe that can take up a poor, wandering, hungry, 
restless soul, and tie it back to God, Religion 
means to bring the soul back to its moorings. 
That's it. I have often thought of the picture of 



" Quit Youjr Meanness." 35 

the Lake of Gennesaret, and, as I looked at the calm, 
placid little lake, surrounded on all sides by rugged, 
towering mountains, I have thought that the winds 
of the storm could never ruffle its bosom. But if 
there was any place on earth where the four winds 
of heaven more fiercely contested for supremacy, it 
was on this little lake of Gennesaret. Christ was 
once riding over this lake in a boat with his disci- 
ples, and the Savior was below in the cabin sleep- 
ing, when suddenly a fierce storm arose, and the 
little ship began to toss and pitch and rock fear- 
fully, and the disciples, trembling with fear, ran and 
aroused him, and said: "Master, wake up, we are 
engulfed. We will be drowned." Christ opened 
his eyes and raised himself up, and wiping the spray 
from his forehead walked up to the prow of the 
little ship, and gathered the waves up to him on his 
lap, like a mother tending her child, and the seas 
subsided, and the winds blew no more. And the 
disciples said: " What manner of man is this, that 
the winds and waves obey him?" Blessed Christ, 
with my poor soul, tempest-tossed and driven, I'll 
crawl up under the cro^s, and he will pull my poor, 
tired soul up in his great loving arms, and sweet 
peace w T ill enfold me, and I'll walk away singing: 

" Now, not a wave of trouble rolls 
Across my peaceful breast." 

Brethren, there's something in religion that will 
make a man of us, there 's something in religion for 
preachers and people. The more religion a preacher 
has, blessed be God, the better it is for him ; and 
the more religion a merchant has, the better it is 



36 Sermons and Sayings. 

for him; and the more religion a farmer has, the 
better it is for him. Blessed be God, religion is not 
only the best thing in the universe, but it is free 
for all. 

"Keceive us." Why ? "I have wronged no man 
with my tongue." A man's tongue has a great deal 
to do with his religion, or rather a man's religion 
has a great deal to do with his tongue. We 've got 
sanctified people all over this country. They are 
sanctified in a thousand senses except the sense in 
which St. James talked about sanctification. Hear 
his description of a sanctified man. Listen ! " Pure 
religion and undefiled before God and the Father 
is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their 
affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the 
world." A man who has learned to manage this 
term has it right. I believe in sanctification as 
strongly as justification ; but, brethren, sanctification 
means a great deal more, perhaps, than you have 
conceived. A Christian preacher in Augusta went 
down to St. James Church one night to a holiness 
meeting, a sanctified meeting, where sanctified people 
met. Next day he met the pastor of St. James 
Church on the street, and said, "I learned last 
night, for the first time, the difference between jus- 
tification and sanctification." " Well, how is that?" 
said the pastor. " Why, I found out last night that 
justification meant to satisfy God with man and man 
with God. That is justification; and sanctification 
means to satisfy a fellow with himself, and I thought 
to myself, there's something in that as sure as you 
live. Justification satisfies a man with God and 



"Quit Your Meanness." 37 

God with man, and sanctification satisfies a man 
with himself." 

I have heard people talk as if they were well 
satisfied with themselves, but I never found many 
in their neighborhood who were w T ell satisfied with 
them. Whenever a man gets more religion than 
he has sense, he 7 s going to talk foolishness right 
straight. Do n't let any body come and say I 'm 
only talking sanctification. I am not. Some of 
the best men on earth practice and live sanctifica- 
tion. But you are obliged to have something more. 
You must get something. Lord Jesus, Master, 
help men to see that religion does not consist in 
what I profess, but it consists in how I live. I 
have no objection to a man's professing sanctifica- 
tion. It's as much my privilege to confess sancti- 
fication as it is justification. I don't quarrel with 
a man as long as he lives on a level with what he 
professes, but when he gets down below that, I'm 
going for him, sure. 

The tongue, said St. James — I ran off at a 
tangent for a w T hile— is full of deadly poison. Many 
a person in Cincinnati — if you will go to their 
homes, and sit by their side, and put your ear to 
their heart — you can hear their heart's blood drip, 
drip, drip, and you say, " what does that," and 
they'll tell you an unkind tongue stabbed it there. 
God pity a man that will take his tongue and stab a 
man's character w T ith it. I '11 tell you another thing. 
This tongue is not only capable of stabbing Christ, 
but the tongue is the cause of all the trouble in our 
midst. It 's not what we do, but what we say, that 



38 Sermons and Sayings. 

kicks up the mischief all around — it 's what we say. 
I have known men who would leave home in the 
morning and go down to their stores and be as polite 
to their women customers, and palaver to them as 
sweetly as you please ; but when they go home at 
night they talk to their wives as if they were old 
bears. Did you ever know a case like that, my 
friend? No? Did n't you see one in the glass to- 
night when you brushed your hair before you came 
to meeting? Many a time a good pains-taking wife 
has carefully arranged every thing to make home 
pleasant, and bring smiles to her husband's face, 
but before he has been in the house five minutes 
he takes that tongue of his and stabs his wife to 
the heart, even before her kiss of welcome is dry on 
his lips, and she goes up-stairs and buries her face 
in her hands and sobs and cries as though her heart 
would break. God pity a woman that has an old 
bear for a husband ! Many a time a poor man who 
has toiled all day with heart pressure upon him be- 
cause of his kindness to her at home, goes home- 
ward and before he has been in the house five 
minutes the woman that should be all to him stabs 
him with her sharp tongue, and he says, in his grief, 
"I wish to God I were dead." 

I think the finest tombstone I ever saw, and 
the prettiest epitaph I ever saw, was when I was 
visiting an old friend of mine. After dinner he 
took me into the garden, and in the most prominent 
place there was erected a beautiful tombstone of 
white marble, in memory of his wife, and on it I 
read her name and the date of her death, and her 



"Quit Your Meanness." 39 

simple epitaph was this line: "She made home 
pleasant." 

I remember the old Irishman who said : " I hope 
I '11 never live to see my wife married again." 
Brethren, let us be kind to wife, for she has left her 
father and her home and her mother and given up 
all things for us, and she gives her life to us, and 
we ought to be kind to her. Never let a word slip 
from your tongue that will bring a drop of blood 
from her heart. We should be kind and loving to 
our children, too. I remember once, at a camp- 
meeting, two or three years ago, I wa j talking to two 
or three of the brothers after dinner, and to one of 
them a little girl, a rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed 
fairy, ran up and asked him some question, and he 
snapped out a word to her that almost made her 
faint, so frightened was she. I cried, "You brute, 
you! " Brethren, you can almost crucify one of your 
children with one stroke of your tongue. How cruel 
it is. I know how it is myself. Sometimes when 
I was busy at work my little boy would bother me 
and I would snap at him and drive him away, but 
I afterward hunted him up and begged his forgive- 
ness. But some of you would sooner die than do 
that. Control your tongue and be kind to your 
children. 

Think of the picture ! I look upon that sweet 
child with his arms around my neck and he looks 
with beaming eyes of love in my face for the 
last time; and when his little arms are forever 
folded on his breast and he has gone from us, I 
never want to go in my parlor and look upon my 



40 Sekmons and Sayings. 

child and say, " O, how his icy cold fingers point 
my memory to the past, and to my hard words and 
actions to that angelic child. " God give us Christly 
teaching. Brethren, get your tongues under perfect 
subjugation. This is one ground on which you can 
enter the inner Church. Get your tongues straight. 
But upon what other ground must I rely? " Be- 
cause I have corrupted no man by my example." 
Brethren, what we need now is a few good examples. 
You go home, mother, and seat your little lovely 
daughter on your lap, and ask her, " Daughter, who 
is the best woman in the world ? " and she will say, 
"Why, you, mamma." " Daughter, whom would you 
rather be like than any body else?" and the sweet 
little child will say, " You, mamma." Ask the 
child such questions as that and she will answer al- 
ways, "Yon, mamma." Ah, sister, that child is 
mistaken ; yet she is that way — there 's no doubt 
about that. The saddest thing a father ever said to 
me in all of my experience was this. I was a pastor 
of a Church then, and I have been pastor for eight 
years, and know all about the relations of pastor 
and people. I tell you, brethren, you can 't love 
your pastor too much, or pray for him too much — 
he needs your examples and prayers. This brother 
said to me, about four weeks after I had preached 
a sermon in his town: "I heard your sermon on 
' Home Religion/ and it waked me up." He was 
a man of intelligence. I said, " What about it ? " 
" I went home," said he, " and studied my children 
four weeks, in all of their varied characteristics, and 
all of the phases of their character and life, and I 



"Quit Your Meanness." 41 

reached a verdict." "What was that?" said I. 
" Well, I found out that my children have n't got 
a single fault that I or their mother has n't got, or 
a single virtue that we have not got ; a direct copy 
of my wife and myself our children are." 

Our examples ! A father said to me once, and 
he was a conscientious, good man, too : "A few days 
ago I was in a grocery store, where they sold pro- 
visions in the front part and kept beer and other 
liquors for sale in the back room. I was in there 
buying groceries, when a gentleman came in and 
said to me, i Won't you have a glass of beer?' 
Without a thought, although I was never in the 
habit of it, I accepted. I w T alked back, and the 
beer was drawn, and as I put it to my lips my little 
boy pulled at my finger and said : ' Papa, what 's 
that you 're drinking?' I stopped drinking, and told 
the little fellow it was beer. After a while the 
child again pulled my finger and asked me: 'Papa, 
what was that you were drinking just now?' And 
I told him again it was beer, lager beer; and so it 
was again as we were going up the street, my child 
pulled at my finger again and said : ' What did you 
say that was you were drinking, papa?' and as he 
asked that again, O God, my God, I would have 
given all the world to have been able to recall that 
act. I am afraid that one act will make a drunkard 
of my child." 

Our examples! Brethren, hear me. I shall 
never do, or suffer myself to do, or suffer any one 
else to do, in my home, in the radius of my influ- 
ence, any thing that would or could curse mine or 



42 Sermons and Sayings. 

any body's child. You can have cards at your 
house if you want to, but until this world burns 
down, I never will, so help me God ; they shall never 
be brought in or remain in my house. Do you ask 
me why? Nine-tenths of the gamblers of this city 
were raised in Christian homes; they are the most 
polite and refined gentlemen in town, and if cards 
in any Christian home ever made a gambler out of 
a Christian boy, then so long as life shall last, I 
will never have cards in my house. If demijohns, 
and glasses, and bottles ever damned a member of 
the Church's son, then, so long as I have given my 
home to God, demijohns, glasses, and bottles shall 
have no place there. And I will tell you another 
thing. Old Brother Demijohn and old Sister Dem- 
ijohn, you are just raising up drunkards by the 
hundreds, and I reckon if God Almighty lets your 
sort of folks into heaven, the very angels would 
halloo out, " Brother Demijohn and Sister Demijohn, 
have you got in at last?" And some women have 
reached the degraded stratum where they are noth- 
ing more or less than bar-keepers for their hus- 
bands — stirring their toddies and mixing their 
drinks. Next to the biggest fool that God's eyes 
ever looked upon is a woman who stirs toddies for 
her husband; but the biggest fool God's eyes ever 
beheld is a woman that will marry a man with 
whisky on his breath. 

I know what I am talking about. I believe if 
I had had such a wife as some drinking men in 
Cincinnati have to-day, I would now be in a drunk- 
ard's grave and a drunkard's hell this moment; but, 



"Quit Your Meanness." 43 

thank God, my wife never would touch, taste, nor 
handle, nor suffer it in her house. I have had a 
woman come to me, who in her young married life 
had indulged her husband and seen that his wines 
and liquors were carefully prepared for him — I have 
had her come to me with haggard face, and cry out, 
"O Mr. Jones, in God's name, help me to save my 
husband from death and hell;" and she gave her 
husband the first years of her married life in the 
encouragement of drinking! An old woman in a 
county in Georgia — I was preaching prohibition 
down there, and I never felt more at home preach- 
ing Jesus Christ to sinners than I felt down there 
preaching prohibition — I know that it 's unpopular 
in Cincinnati. I have been preaching prohibition 
experimentally, practically, collectively, and person- 
ally for about thirteen years, and it 's never hurt 
me yet, but whisky liked to have knocked me in 
about thirteen months. In one county where I 
was talking prohibition this old snaggle-toothed, 
wrinkle-faced hag said of me, " I hope God will 
kill that man before election day for trying to rob 
people of their living." This old Mrs. So-and-so 
had buried three husbands in drunkards' graves. 
My Lord, what sort of an old hag was that? 

I'll tell you another thing; I do n't know how 
the preachers have been preaching to you — they are 
all better men than I am — but if the occupants of 
the two hundred pulpits in Cincinnati will stand up 
and talk for law and order, sobriety and righteous- 
ness will prevail in this city. God wake up the 
pulpits and help the brothers to talk about things 



44 Sermons and Sayings. 

that are damning this city ! One preacher will 
talk about evangelical methods, and another preacher 
will split hairs a mile long on real and unreal re- 
generation. I never hear a man read this text — 
with all due respect to the preachers — " Except ye 
be born again ye can not enter into the kingdom 
of heaven" — I say I never hear that text read from 
the pulpit but I wish you to add : " If we confess 
our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
Jesus Christ knew how to preach, brethren, and 
Jesus Christ touched that subject to one man, an 
intelligent man who staggered back and asked, 
" Why, how can this thing be ?" Hear me, brother. 
God's Gospel is to teach a man to quit his mean- 
ness. Come to God, and let the Lord explain his 
own works and let God do his own work. I heard 
of a grand preacher who had a grand revival ; he 
preached day and night for three weeks on regener- 
ation, and he never had a single convert; but 
brother, I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is ade- 
quate to reach every sinner in this city. 

I am not going to run the grand old ship of Zion 
about ten miles from shore. I am going to bring 
her to the land. Ten million sinners might look 
at the old ship away off and say, " There she is, but 
I can 't get to her, for if I tried to swim to her I 
would drown." Brother, brother! Let's run the 
old ship in until her keel strikes the shore. Tell 
the world: "All aboard! This grand old ship is 
going by ! " You can 't get the old ship of Zion too 
close to sinners. 



"Quit Your Meanness." 45 

" I have corrupted no man with my life ; my 
example has been right ;" that 's it. " I have 
wronged no man ; I have set no bad example." In 
addition to that Paul said, I have defrauded no man 
in a business transaction. O, for hands like these 
to work for God and for man ! 

Talk about Ingersoll, I never met an intelligent 
man yet that had been damned by Bob Ingersoll. 
The only difference between Bob Ingersoll and any 
other fellow running after him is this : Bob Inger- 
soll plays the fool for $1,500 a night, and this little 
fellow runs after him and plays the fool for nothing, 
and boards himself. And I tell you Bob Ingersoll 
is going to continue to play that kind of a fool as 
long as this country gives him $1,500 a night to 
insult God and ridicule his precious Word; and 
yet you go to hear him. If I had a dog to go and 
hear him I would kill him. He could n't come to 
my house any more. 

" I have defrauded no man in any business trans- 
action." Brother, let us look into this and do what 
it says; do what you say you'll do and quit de- 
frauding men. Brother, hear me; a man who has 
$50,000, $100,000 riding in a $1,200 carriage and 
living in a $25,000 house, driving down the streets 
meets a poor old widow from whom he has stolen. 
I tell you if there is any hell, it 's for that kind of a 
man. There \s no use talking. I '11 tell you another 
thing. There are too many men in this country 
boarding with their wives: no doubt about that. 
Let me tell you another thing — when the fellow 
does a clean thing, God Almighty will stand by 



46 Sermons and Sayings. 

him. He will give him three square meals every 
day if he has to put the angels on one-third rations. 
Let 's do right and defraud no man, and we will 
have righteousness, peace, and joy. 

Well, I have talked considerably over an hour. 
I did not intend to. But hear me, let's think about 
these things. I tell you I never — I tell you I never 
want to see a revival in this city, or anywhere else, 
that isn't bottomed on bed rock. Let's go down 
until you hear your boot-heels grating and grinding 
against the Rock of Ages. None of your corn-stalk 
revivals ! We want the sort of revival that will 
make men do the clean thing. If we can have that 
sort of revival I want to see it — but not corn-stalk 
revivals. Do you know what a corn-stalk revival 
is? Well, if you were to pile up a lot of corn 
stalks as high as this house, and burn them up, 
there would n't be a hodful of ashes. We want a 
revival of righteousness • we want a revival of 
honesty; we want a revival of cleanness and purity, 
of debt-paying, of prayer-meetings, of family prayer, 
and of paying our brothers a little more salary. 
That 's the sort of revival we want. The Lord give 
us this sort ! 

One more illustration in conclusion. Some 
months ago a man was fearfully crippled in his 
right leg by a railroad accident. It was fearfully 
mangled and bruised. They wanted to amputate 
the leg, but he said : " O I do n't want to lose my 
limb ; preserve it if you can." They watched at 
his side until at last the surgeon said : " My friend, 
the crisis has come when we must amputate your 



"Quit Your Meanness." 47 

leg." He said: "Doctor, has it reached that 
point ?" " Yes/' said the surgeon. " Well," said 
he, submissively, " if there is no chance to save my 
leg, get your knife and go to work." When they 
got all ready and laid the patient on the table to 
commence the fearful operation, the surgeons desired 
to administer chloroform, but the mangled man 
said: "I do not want to take that; if I die I want 
to die in my full consciousness, but I want you to 
let me know by some sign when I begin to sink, so 
that I can breathe my spirit out in prayer." They 
told him that he could n't stand the operation with- 
out chloroform, but he said that he could. The 
doctor picked up the knife and said to the patient : 
"If you see me lay the knife down on the table 
you may know that you are sinking." 

The doctor commenced the operation, and the 
man did not flinch. When he struck the arteries 
he laid his knife down to adjust them, and the 
young man took it for a sign that he was dying, 
and commenced praying. The surgeon picked up 
the knife and resumed his w T ork. In a few minutes 
the operation was over, and he saw he was saved, 
and he turned to the surgeon and said : " Doctor, 
when you picked the knife up from the table and 
began your operation, it was the sweetest sensation 
I ever felt in my life." " What do you mean ?" 
said the doctor. " I mean," said he, " that those 
sensations meant life for me" Xow, brother, when 
God Almighty throws down the pruning-knife it is 
a sign that vou are sinking; — the sword of the divine 
Spirit cutting through the tendrils of sin ; but, thank 



48 Sermons and Sayings. 

God, he has not laid down the sword. The sword 
of the Spirit means life. O brother, come to life in 
the presence of Jesus, and die in his love. God 
help us to take these things home with us! 



SAYINGS. 

Inter-Communion. — We have taken down the 
fences now, we Christians, and for this occasion will 
have but one belief. The Baptist will take the 
Presbyterian by the arm and lead him over to the 
Baptist pond (for somehow or other the Baptists 
seem to hove control of this pond), and on its banks 
they will feed upon Methodist grass, and there will 
be a great fattening. We have a combination of 
Methodist fire, Baptist water, and Presbyterian 
" hold on to what you Ve got," and we will have a 
glorious meeting. I feel it. 

Give ! — Once there was a large pond of clear 
water. Beside it ran a happy little streamlet. The 
pond said to its neighbor : " Why do you run so 
rapidly away? After a while the Summer's heat 
will come and you will need the water you now are 
wasting. Take example by me. I am saving all 
my forces, and when Summer comes I will have 
plenty." The streamlet did not reply, but con- 
tinued on its way sparkling and bright, rippling 
over white pebbles, and its waters dancing in the 
sunlight. By and by the Summer came, with all its 
heat. The pond had carefully saved all its strength, 
not allowing a drop of water to escape. The rivulet 



"Quit Youk Meanness." 49 

had never changed its way, but had continued, 
making happy all that it had met on its winding 
course. The trees locked their green boughs over- 
head, and did not allow a sun ray to fall upon it. 
Birds built their nests and sang in these boughs, 
and bathed themselves in the pure water. Cattle 
drank of the living stream and delighted to stand 
upon the cool banks. But how was it with the 
pond ? It was heated by the fierce rays of the sun. 
Its waters bred miasma and malaria. Even the 
frogs spurned it, and it became bereft of every sign 
of life. The cattle deserted it, and refused to drink 
of its w T aters. The little stream continued its jour- 
ney, carrying its waters to the larger stream, to 
the rivers, and at last to the ocean, where God took 
it up in incense and kissed it and formed it into 
clouds. He harnessed the winds and hitched them 
to the clouds ; and they journeyed inland until they 
came to this little happy streamlet, and then the cup 
was tipped, and as the streamlet got back its own 
again, a still small voice might have been heard, 
saying, " It is better to give than to receive." 

5 



Sermon III. 

^THI£ CHURCH IN GOD. 

"Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the Church of 
the Thessalonians which is in God the Father, and in the 
Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God 
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." — 1 Thess. i, 1. 

I READ for a Scripture lesson several verses in 
the first chapter of the First Epistle of Paul to 
the Thessalonians. I have read the epistles of St. 
Paul and St. John and St. Peter with some interest, 
and I trust with much profit ; and after reading the 
epistles addressed to these Churches, I am ready to 
admit that, whatever men may say of the Church 
of the first century of the Christian era, all men must 
admit that the Church then had power with God 
and influence with men. And as I look out upon 
the Church of the nineteenth century, I find that in 
just so far as we have lost this similarity, and are 
unlike the Church of the first century, just that far 
have we lost power with God and, influence over 
men. And I say again, just in proportion as we 
have maintained our similarity to the Church of 
the first century, have we power with God and in- 
fluence with men. I believe this progressive age 
has improved every thing in the universe except 
religion, and men as they approach the religion of 
Jesus Christ, may well approach it cautiously, and 
light upon its truths like a honey-bee upon a flower, 
and extract the honey, but never deface its beauty 
or extract its fragrance. I believe in progressive 
50 



The Church in God. 51 

theology, but not in a progressive Christianity. 
Christianity impressed itself upon men eighteen 
hundred years ago as a soul-saving power, as a 
life-reforming power; and just in so far as it is a 
soul-saving and life-reforming power it still has 
God with it, and it still has power. Give me a 
progressive theology, but let me have religion in 
all Christian purity and power. 

I sometimes think the Church to-day presents 
the picture of a little boy's copy-book at school. 
You see, he walks up to the teacher, who gives him 
a beautiful line as his copy. The little boy goes 
back to his seat, sits down and imitates the line of 
the copy set him by the teacher, then on the next 
line the little fellow will imitate his own writing, 
and down and down he gets worse and worse to 
the bottom of the page, and the last line the little 
fellow writes on the page is the worst line he writes. 
Now 7 , Christ set the copy. The apostles imitated 
him. The next generation imitated the apostles, 
and so on down, until now the last page and line 
seem to be the most basely written of all. You 
say, is the world getting worse ? Is man getting 
further from God? Are we losing the likeness of God 
altogether ? No ! There are more good men to-day 
upon earth than ever in its history, and there are 
more bad men to-day than ever in this world's . 
history. If you think the devil is asleep, if you 
think bad agencies have retired, you have made a 
mistake. 

Never in this world's history has the devil been 
so active, and his agencies more powerful than they 



52 Sermons and Sayings. 

are to-day, and this fact is a very potent factor in 
the world. God is depending on his Church to 
bring the world to him ; the devil is depending on 
his crowd to bring the w^orld to him. Just as God 
is powerless in this world without a faithful pulpit 
and a faithful Church, so the devil is powerless 
without his allies and his followers. Every good 
man in this country is an ally of God, and doing 
his best to save the world. Every bad man is an 
ally of the devil, and doing his best to damn the 
world. That is one reason why I w r ant to find one 
city wholly the Lord's. I want to find one com- 
munity w 7 here there is no servant of sin or of un- 
righteousness. I want to move my family into that 
community. I declare to you, as long as you have 
got one man in your community who is an enemy 
of God and the right, listen to what God says about 
him : " One sinner destroyeth much good." And 
if one will destroy much good, w T hat will these ten 
thousand sinners all around here do ? Brethren, 
if there was ever an age when we should look to 
primitive Christianity, and see what gave it such 
power with God, and such influence with men, it is 
to-day. If you think the soldier of the cross has 
nothing to do but just get up on dress parade once 
a week, or once a month, you do n't understand the 
situation ; you do n't see it as it is seen by a great 
many of these old brethren. Well, when I was a 
boy they did n't have Sunday-schools, and they 
didn't have Church papers much. They didn't 
have Sunday-school literature, and they did n't have 
a great many things that I see now floating out be- 



The Church in Gob. 53 

fore the public. Brother, when you were a boy in- 
fidel sheets were not circulated all over this country. 
When you were a boy there was n't a bar-room for 
every half-mile square of the American continent. 
When you were a boy there was n't an infidel stand- 
ing on the street corner in every town, talking and 
showing his infidelity to every man. And now 
that you know these things, do n ; t you want every 
agency for good put around your home ? For, I 
tell you, your children, when you are dead and 
gone, will be swept by this power into ruin and 
desolation, unless like men you walk out to the 
front and die in your tracks rather than let these 
influences sweep over your home and your land. 
That is what we want. I want you to let me talk 
with you on this occasion for a few minutes about 
the condition of things eighteen hundred years 
ago, and what it is now; and we shall then learn 
something from the lesson before us this afternoon. 
There is a lesson here for every professing Chris- 
tian man. 

I am not here to parade the unfaithfulness of 
the Church of God before the world ; I just stop 
long enough to say this: The meanest member of 
the Church that ever lived in this community is 
better than any of you men out of the Church ; for 
he tries to be good, but you have been mean ever 
since you were born. I have no patience with you 
trifling, cursing, drinking, godless men and women 
out of the Church ; and while I talk to the people 
of God about their shortcomings, I want you to 
understand, that you are meaner than a hundred of 



54 Sermons and Sayings. 

them put together ; so do n't you take special com- 
fort to yourself now, while this is going on. 

Now let us look at this subject as it presents 
itself in the light of God's truth ; and, brother, truth 
is powerful for God and for you just in proportion 
as you hear and obey the truth. Paul in the letter 
before us, begins thus : " Paul and Silvanus and 
Timotheus unto the Church of the Thessalonians, 
which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus 
Christ ; grace be unto you and peace from God our 
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Paul and 
Silvanus and Timothy had preached the Gospel of 
the Son of God at Thessalonica some months before 
the date of this letter, and after leaving Thessa- 
lonica, or rather while they were there preaching 
the Gospel, men heard the Gospel, believed the 
Gospel, and obeyed the Gospel, and he organized 
them into a Christian Church in this heathen city, 
and then leaving on his missionary tour, after an 
absence of some time — I know not definitely how 
long — St. Paul addressed a letter to the Church at 
Thessalonica in this language: " Paul and Silvanus 
and Timotheus unto the Church of the Thessalo- 
nians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord 
Jesus Christ." Now he here locates the Church of 
God : " the Church of the Thessalonians, which is 
in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ." 

Now every truly Scriptural Church is located in 
the heart of God, and God lives in the heart of 
every Christian Church. The term, "in Christ 
Jesus" and "having Christ Jesus in you," are in- 
terchangeable. If any man be in Christ Jesus he 



The Church in God. 55 

is a new creature; and if Christ be in you, he is 
formed in you the hope of glory. Brother, having 
Christ in you, and being yourself in Christ, mean 
pretty much the same thing. 

Our Savior said to the race : " Behold, I stand 
at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, 
and open the door, I will come in to him and will 
sup with him and he with me," And, O, what a 
privilege it is to open the door of my heart and let 
Christ in. What a privilege for him thus to be my 
guest in my own heart. I am ashamed of every 
thing I have to offer him. I am ashamed of the 
home I give him when he is my guest. Blessed 
privilege ! Christ my guest ! And then he says : 
"You shall sup with me now. I have been your 
guest in your heart ; now you shall sit down ; you 
shall be my guest, and you shall sup with me. I 
will be host, and you shall sit down at the table of 
my own heart and be fed with Heaven's bread and 
angels' food." 

I am the guest of Christ, he is my host. Brother, 
you know what that means. I want to say at this 
point that you can run Confucianism without Con- 
fucius, and you can run Mormonism with Joseph 
Smith and Brigham Young in their graves, but you 
can 't run Christianity without a personal, abiding, 
indwelling Christ. It is not a question of how you 
have been baptized, nor what Church you belong 
to, but the question of questions is, Is the Lord 
Jesus Christ embodied in your heart, and is he an 
ever-abiding guest? That is the question. The 
Lord Jesus Christ must abide in the hearts of men, 



56 Sermons and Sayings. 

so that we can say: "I am crucified with Christ, 
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
me." And it is this ever present, abiding, loving, 
reigning Christ in the soul that gives us power with 
God and influence with men. 

" But," says some one, " I have made profession 
of religion." Well, what if you have?" Have 
you got religion in your heart, and can you say, 
"The life that I now live I live by the faith of the 
Son of God, and the love of Him who gave him- 
self for me ?" " I die daily," said St. Paul. The 
first thing I do when I rise from my bed is to fall 
on my knees and die to this world, its pleasures, its 
profits, its friends, its emoluments, its losses ; and I 
live to God, I live to righteousness, live to all that 
is good. That is it. The Church of God is im- 
planted in the great heart of God, and God lives in 
the heart of the Church. 

If I wanted to find God I would seek him in 
the hearts of good men and women. Whenever I 
am close to a good man I am close to God, for 
every good man is the home of God, and dwells in 
the heart of God himself. Well, now, the Church 
partakes of the nature of each individual member 
forming that Church. If a pastor has four hundred 
members in his Church, or if he has two hundred 
members, and fifty of them are good men and women, 
who love God and keep his commandments, and one 
hundred and fifty others are indifferent and care- 
less and godless and Christless, then you see what 
sort of a Church he has. Three-fourths of it are 
astray from God and duty, and one-fourth pro- 



The Chukch in God. 57 

claiming the love and teachings of Christ in their 
character. You see what sort of a Church that 
presents. Why, in the time of slavery, brothers, 
if a man had two hundred slaves, and only fifty 
of them were able to work, would n't he have had a 
hard time making a living for his slaves? So with 
two hundred members in a Church, and only fifty 
of them active, that Church has got all it can do 
to look after those one hundred and fifty invalids, 
and has no time to go out and work and bring the 
world to Christ. Don't you see? 

How many members attend the prayer-meetings 
in this Church? How many do you have Wednes- 
day nights ? Do you say about twenty ? Well, I 
would sell out and quit, if that is the case. I'd 
sell out on credit. I would no more put my wife 
and children in such a Church as that — mark 
what I say — I would n't suffer my children to be 
raised in a Church of that sort. Now, you can run 
that line if you want to, but mark what I say. 
Every man in the Church who has religion goes to 
prayer-meeting. You ask, How do I know ? I 
know because I have got religion, and it walks 
about with me. You see I know what religion will 
do for a fellow. I got it thirteen years ago. I was 
right there when the thing happened, and I know 
just exactly what it will do for a fellow. I have 
tried it. 

I will tell you another thing. Whenever you see 
a Church and community run down that low religi- 
ously, there are very few women in that community 
that God can count on. I tell you when the devil 



58 Sermons and Sayings. 

gets the help of a man's wife on his side, she has 
very nearly gone nine-tenths of the road in the 
direction of her husband's destruction. Sister, what 
is the matter with your . husband on Wednesday 
night that you have n't got his arm to bring you 
out to prayer-meeting? What is the matter? Is it 
a fact that he has got no wife, and his wife has got 
no husband ? Is that the trouble ? There are a 
great many women in this world that I think, when 
I look at their husbands, ought not to change their 
names at all, but let their husbands go by their 
name. They married such a little lump of nothing 
that their husbands ought to go by their wives' 
names, so that the people could ask of them, " What 
was your name before you were married ?" I think 
that would go in first-rate. I reckon you will put 
a little tin horse in his stocking for him every 
Christmas, won't you, and buy him some candy. 
Some of you look disgusted at this point. That is 
the sort of look I once saw a woman wear when I 
was doing my best to lift her poor drunken boy out 
of debauchery. She was sitting back making noses 
at me. Many a woman will stand right by and 
hear her husband getting a going-over by some 
friend. But the preacher, she thinks, must be very 
careful what he says, or she will turn her nose up 
at him. Yes, and the devil has got a mortgage 
on that nose of yours, too. He is going to foreclose 
some of these days, too. These are facts, and facts 
are stubborn things, you know. You can not get 
round a fact. 

Suppose that with a Church of two hundred 



The Church in God. 59 

members we have twenty that are full of faith in 
God and duty, and one hundred and eighty that 
stand out careless and indifferent — what can such a 
Church as that do? Only twenty of you able to 
fight, with one hundred and eighty hospital rats to 
look after! Don't you see why we make no inroads 
on the world? Don't you see why it is that you 
have n't had one hundred genuine conversions in the 
last ten years ? Now you see the reason of things, 
and my plan is to take a common-sense view of the 
facts. I like to deal with facts. You can't get 
round a fact. Theories you can brush out of the 
way, but when you come to a fact you can not dig 
under it, and you can't jump over it; you have to 
meet it. 

" The Church of the Thessalonians, which is in 
God the Father;" that means in every good word 
and work. That means in every thing that will help 
the world to be better and against every thing that 
makes the world worse. " Which is in God the 
Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ." Then Paul 
goes on : " We give thanks to God always for you 
all, making mention of you in our prayers." 

O, what a privilege it is for a preacher to pray 
for his congregation — his Church. 

I never preach to a congregation for w 7 hom I 
have not prayed. I would be afraid to preach to a 
man for w 7 hom I had not prayed. I do thank God 
that always before I am called into the pulpit it is 
my privilege to go to God in prayer. There are a 
great many styles of preachers in this world, and a 
great many styles of preaching. I reckon every 



60 Sermons and Sayings. 

man has his own style. If he copies after no one 
else he is what we call an original character. God 
never made two men alike. If he did, one of them 
was of no account. You can put that down. A man 
is potent just as he is himself. Now, the general 
pulpit style of America is about like this : " Here 
I am, Rev. Jeremiah Jones, D-o-c-t-o-r of D-i- 
v-i-n-i-t-y, saved by the grace of God, with a mes- 
sage to deliver. If you repent, and believe what I 
believe, you will be saved, and if you do n't you 
will be damned, and I do n't care much if you are." 
That is the style. That 's the general style of the 
American pulpit everywhere — except in this city, 
of course. Brethren, I won't make any charges 
against you. A great many preachers go into the 
pulpit with a ramrod and a pump. They ram back 
every thing that they think will hurt, and pump out 
every thing that is pretty and nice — and the people 
are just dusting to hell by the thousand. At every 
conference you notice a delegation going up to the 
bishops from the leading Churches. One delega- 
tion will go to the bishop and will say : "Bishop, we 
want you to send us a preacher this year that is 
popular with the young people." Another delega- 
tion will go in and say : " Bishop, please send us a 
preacher that is popular with other denominations." 
Another crowd will go in and say: " Bishop, please 
send us a preacher that is popular with sinners." 
And another crowd will go in and say : " Bishop, 
please send us a preacher that is popular with every 
body." But I tell you, I have never heard of a 
delegation going up to conference and asking the 



The Church in God. 61 

bishop: " Please, sir, send us a minister that is 
popular with God Almighty. We want a preacher 
that walks and talks with God." O, my, when you 
get this sort they will turn this country over; no 
doubt about that. 

St. Paul prayed for the Church of the Thessa- 
lonians, and it is the duty of a preacher to pray for 
his congregation. I have no doubt some of these 
preachers here have been wrestling with God at 
midnight, on their knees, after all their members 
were asleep. O God, bless and save my people, 
these preachers have long been praying. Now what 
have you been doing? It takes just three things to 
make up a good sermon — thought, study, and prayer. 
You, men, associate that with every sermon you 
hear. Think you that I do n't have to study and 
pray over what I am saying? If I did n't you 
wouldn't want to hear it. You associate with ser- 
mons study, and thought, and prayer, don't you? 
Now, some preachers say that they do n't have to 
study any. They say they open their mouths, and 
the Lord will fill them. Well, so he will fill them. 
Just as soon as you open it he will fill it with air. 
That is all that I know of that he will fill it with. 
There is many an old air-gun shooting around 
over this country. Is n't that about all you can 
make out of that? These fellows don't have to 
study. 

We had one of them once in Georgia — I don't 
know how many more we had. He said he did n't 
study; he just opened the Bible, and the first pas- 
sage he struck was his text. He had Herod cutting 



62 Sermons and Sayings. 

off Abraham's head, and he had John the Baptist 
in the fiery furnace. They had him up before a 
conference, and the presiding elder said: " Brother, 
I understand you do n't study." The good brother 
responded that he didn't have to study; he just 
opened his mouth and the Lord filled it. "But," 
said the elder, "didn't you state awhile ago that 
Herod cut off Abraham's head ?" " O yes, I said 
that." " Did n't you tell them that God put John 
the Baptist in the fiery furnace?" "O, yes, I said 
that, too." "Well," said the elder, "you can go 
on out. You can't get any new license from me. 
God doesn't tell lies, and his Bible is true; and 
he did n't tell you any thing about Herod cutting 
off Abraham's head, or about John the Baptist being 
in the fiery furnace." So much for those who open 
their mouths for the Lord to fill them. Let me tell 
you, God never does any thing for a fellow that he 
can do for himself. God is n't going to run around 
posting lazy preachers that do n't study. He has 
got too much else to do. You associate with a ser- 
mon prayer, and thought, and study — and it just 
takes those three things to get ready to preach — 
and there is no preparation without them. You 
show me a preacher that doesn't study, and I will 
show you an air-gun. Of course there are no air- 
guns here, but I am speaking of those in Georgia. 
The next thing to an air-gun is an old powder- 
gun — one with nothing in it but powder. Nobody 
ever gets hurt with that. It is like a fellow shoot- 
ing at birds without any shot. The birds enjoy it 
as much as he does ; none of them get hurt. But 



The Church in God. 63 

whenever a fellow puts in powder and shot, and puts 
on a great cap from the ammunition of God, and 
lays the barrel on the rail and takes careful aim, 
and fires and hits — that ■ 's the time. After he hits 
the fellow he can stop and apologize : " I did n't 
mean to hit you there. I aimed here." But it 's all 
right. That is one of the preachers who aims where 
he hits and hits where he aims. The greatest bless- 
ing any community ever had is a game preacher — 
never afraid of the devil. And the greatest curse 
is a time-serving preacher who is afraid of hurt- 
ing somebody's feelings if he does his duty. Poor 
little fellow ! You should send him over some 
molasses candy this evening and let him suck it. 
Now, it takes two things to make a good sermon, and 
that is a good preacher and a good hearer, and when 
you get a good preacher and a good hearer together 
then you are going to have a first-class sermon. 
Well, if I must study, and read, and pray in order 
to get ready to preach, what must you do to get 
ready to hear? The Bible says a good deal about 
that. It says : " Take heed how you hear." It 
says : " Be not forgetful hearers, but doers of 
the work." If you want to be blessed in your 
deeds, get ready to hear. How will you get ready 
to hear ? By thought, and prayer, and study. Just 
precisely as a man gets ready to preach, you ought 
to get ready to hear. 

Now, for instance, here is a woman. One fact in 
her history is, that she is always made happy un- 
der preaching. One day a preacher went home 
with her from Church, and says : " Sister, how is it 



64 Sermons and Sayings. 

that you are always made happy under preaching, I 
do n't care who preaches, or what sort of a sermon 
it is ?" " Well/' said the woman, " you are the 
pastor, and you come round once a month and preach, 
and I spend thirty days in praying God to bless 
his word and make it effective in my soul ; and do 
you reckon that after thirty days of earnest prayer 
the Lord disappoints me? So it is a good sermon 
to me, I do n't care what it is to other people." 

When you get ready to hear, you are going to 
be profited by the preacher. You can take the best 
seed in the w r orld and scatter it out here, and you 
need n't expect to bring any crop ; but you plow the 
soil, and put in the seed, and till the ground, and har- 
row it, and in due time comes the harvest. So you can 
take the best seed from the granaries of heaven, and 
scatter it about on the ground of men's hearts, and 
you need not expect any return from it, but if you 
take the plowshare of faith and prepare the ground, 
and harrow it over with supplication, then the seed 
falls down into good ground and springs up and 
bears fruit; some fifty, some sixty, and some a 
hundred-fold, to the glory of God. 

Brother, it is just as necessary that you prepare 
your heart to hear as it is to prepare your ground for 
the seed. This is the seed of the Gospel falling 
upon your heart, and if there is no preparation for 
the seed there will be no harvest. Get ready to 
hear. How many people have been on their knees 
wrestling with God, praying, " God bless this sermon 
to-day to my soul ; God prepare me to hear his 
word." How many of you have wrestled with 



The Church in God. 65 

God that the power of heaven may rest on the 
word, and that you may be prepared to hear? 

Prayer, that is what we want. Praying men 
and women, and the preachers that will wrestle with 
God and people that will wrestle with God. Now, 
we do n't want any special preachers. God can put 
up with any sort of preachers at a meeting if he can 
just have the power in his work — and you pray the 
power down from God. That is the way to get it. 
I can stand here and preach for a week and nothing 
will be accomplished unless you get the power of 
the Holy Ghost on the word. 

And, brethren, what we need now is not a fresh 
preacher, but the Holy Ghost falling down on us, 
and we want to call him down, to pray him down, 
and we want a dozen or tAvo hearts lifted up in 
prayer, so that before the first prayer gets up to God 
the answer will meet it half-way, and by the time 
the prayer gets to the ear of God the blessing is 
down here on the people. That is what we w r ant. 
I think of a brother, one of the most wonderful 
workers for Christ, I ever knew. He was at Hunts- 
ville, Ala., and I wondered at the power of God that 
came down on the people. I knew several were 
praying. One night about 12 o'clock I was sleep- 
ing in the room with a young brother, w r ho went 
there w T ith me, and another gentleman, and they 
w T ere disturbing me with their snoring, and I put 
up with it until after 12 o'clock, and I knew I ought 
to go to sleep, and I woke them up to help me move 
my bed into the parlor, as I w r anted to lie in there. 
So they helped me into the parlor, with my bed, and 



66 Sermons and Sayings. 

as we went into the parlor we walked right up on 
our host — one of the best men under the skies — 
praying after midnight on his knees, in his parlor; 
wrestling with God. And my brother told me that 
he walked out in the hall that same night at three 
o'clock, and there was the brother still on his knees 
and still wrestling with God for the power of the 
k Holy Ghost upon us. I told my brother, " Some- 
thing has got to happen from this praying, when you 
see God's people wrestling all night in prayer that 
heaven's blessing may rest upon the people." Breth- 
ren, what we want here is men that are so busy 
praying at 3 o'clock in the morning that they won't 
have to preach at all. I want this settlement saved. 
O, God, let down thy power. 

Charles G. Finney, perhaps the most powerful 
preacher that ever stood before an American audi- 
ence, carried around with him an old brother, Nash. 
The old brother seldom went to Church, but when 
Brother Finney would start to preach, he would 
fall on his knees in their room and begin to pray. 
One night, Mr. Finney said, he began to preach, 
when in a few moments the power of God came 
down on all the congregation. He could almost 
hear the audible steps of God coming in the aisles 
of the church, and he said every sinner in the church 
was converted to God, and every Christian made 
happy. He never saw such power in his life. As 
he walked out he said: "I know Brother Nash has 
had a big time with the Lord to-night, I know he 
has." He started to walk on to where he lived 
with Brother Nash, and when he got there Brother 



The Church en God. 67 

Xash was lying flat on his back on the floor. After 
he got quiet Mr. Finney said: "I suppose you had 
a great time with God. God has been upon us with 
power." "Yes," said Brother Xash, "I was pray- 
ing, and God came on me with such a baptism that 
I prayed for the same thing on the Church, and he 
stayed with me and went to the Church, and I stood 
up and praised him, and sat down and praised him, 
until I fell on the floor and shouted praise to God 
for sending such power to rest upon the children 
of men." 

I tell you, my brethren and sisters here this 
afternoon, if we can get men and women who will 
pray God's power down on us, you will see things be- 
fore another week that you never expected to see just 
right here. Now, mark what I tell you. Lord God 
Almighty, pour upon these people the spirit of 
prayer, so that we carry it with us every moment. 
Mr. Finney said : " I have never seen the power 
of God rest upon a people until the spirit of prayer 
has taken possession." Now, brother, let us leave 
Sam Jones out of this meeting. This is God's 
work. Let us give God the glory. He will glorify 
no man on earth. As soon as you look up you will 
see the power of God down upon you. Prayer, 
prayer, that is what we want. Mr. Story, I believe it 
was, illustrated this question. He said he was pastor 
of a Church for eighteen years, and each successive 
year God poured revival fire upon his people, and 
hundreds and thousands of souls were turned to 
good. a And," he said, u I frequently wondered why 
it was that God blessed such an unfaithful pastor as 



68 Sermons and Sayings. 

I am." He said : " At last I was standing by the 
bedside of one of my people, when perhaps he was 
dying, and he took my hand and said : ' Dr. Story, 
I am going to leave the world and go home to God. 
I want to thank you for much help you have been 
to me as my pastor. I have been poor and not 
able to do much for you, but I have done. what I 
could, and for the eighteen years since you took 
charge of your Church, I have spent every Saturday 
night in prayer that God might pour his power 
upon you/ " Now, when you want power, you get 
on your knees ; for I tell you the power of the pulpit 
is with the pew. I wish we had some good prayers 
here. I wish we had some women that walk and 
talk with God, and God would hear them as they 
cried Amen ! Pray without ceasing — your work 
of faith and labor of love, and patience of hope. 

Now, first, the Church was located in the heart 
of God ; secondly, it was a prayerful Church; 
thirdly, it had works of faith, labors of love, and 
patience of hope. These are the three component 
elements of a Scriptural Church — works of faith, 
labors of love, patience of hope. What is a work 
of faith? It isn't a work of sight or knowledge. 
What is a work of sight ? See that farmer plowing 
along between those rows of corn that wave on each 
side of him like a sea of green. Look at him as 
he plows between the rows. He can almost hear 
the joints of the corn cracking and popping under 
the pressure of its growth. As he plows he looks 
upon the corn. That is a work of sight. He can 
just see his crop coming on. What is work of 



The Church in God. 69 

knowledge ? I heard two darkies coming along 
one day and one of them said : " I loves to work 
for So-and-so." The other says: "Why?" He 
answers : " Because I knows that just as soon as 
the work is done there is the money." That is a 
work of knowledge. What is a work of faith ? I 
will tell you. Let me illustrate. Suppose you 
knew that old Colonel So-and-so was going to get 
religion to-morrow and join the Church. Suppose 
you knew that, what would you do? You would 
go and see him this evening and talk and pray with 
him. After it was over, would not you want to say, 
" I had a finger in that pie; I went and talked and 
prayed over him." Do n't you know human nature 
so well? Well, what's a work of faith? It is go 
and see the old colonel this evening and pray that 
to-morrow he may be converted, and pray with 
him, because God says, " according to your faith so 
be it unto you." You well know what it is to pull 
on a cold collar. It takes a good tame horse to do 
it. You hitch him up of a cold, frosty morning, 
hitch him to a big load, and he sets to and pulls it 
off like a mule — that is what we call a work of 
faith. It is pulling on a cold collar. That kind of 
a horse you can hitch to a tree on a frosty morning 
and he will make a hundred set pulls at it — that is 
what we call a work of faith, pulling on a cold 
collar. I knew a fellow once who had a w r agon 
load of wood to haul to camp and it was a cold 
morning. He hitched up his horses, but they would 
not pull a pound. He put a boy on each horse and 
then he ran them up and down, riding about two 



70 Sermons and Sayings. 

or three miles, and got them warmed up and then 
hitched them up and they pulled right off. 

You notice how a preacher, Baptist or Method- 
ist, in this country starts a meeting. The first 
thing you know he starts raking his members up 
and down the road for a week or ten days. He is 
getting the Church warmed up. They would not 
pull a hen off her roost till you got them warmed 
up. After you have warmed up a brother he will 
pray powerfully, but if you did n't he would n't 
pray one bit — running on feeling, you know. But 
he is a sight when you get him warmed up. Now, 
my doctrine is, I will serve God and do right, feel- 
ing, or no feeling. That is my doctrine. I never 
stop to ask how I feel. I just do what it is God 
wants done or what it is the Church wants me to 
do. A dog will run a rabbit when he feels like do- 
ing it, and when he does n't feel like it, he won't. If 
I were you, and all run to feeling, I would hunt rab- 
bits. I reckon you would make a good rabbit dog. 
You ain't fit for much else. Now, a work of faith 
is to go right along and do what God and his 
Church wants you to do, and ask no questions; 
that is a work of faith. What is faith? St. James 
says : " If you will show me your faith without 
your works I will show you my faith by my works." 
I will show you what I believe by the way I do. 
And if you will find me a man that is busy for 
God, I will show you a man that has got works of 
faith and will do any thing whether he feels like 
it or not. A heap of people think if they do a 
thing when they do n't feel like it that they are 



The Church in God. 71 

hypocrites. Well, we will talk about that some 
other time. 

Now, what is the difference between a work of 
faith and a labor of love ? There is nothing in 
kind — it is a difference in degree. For instance, 
the first day I joined the Church I went home at 
night and my wife pulled the Bible down and said : 
" We will have family prayers." I took the Bible 
out of her hand and it almost shook me from head 
to foot, and my first impulse was to lay it back on 
the table. I read a chapter, however, and got down 
and prayed. The perspiration just poured off me. 
O, it was hard. It was a work of faith, but I just 
kept on praying, and prayed night and morning in 
my family until it has got to be the most delight- 
ful moments I spend at home — the time I spend in 
family prayer. Here's a man who the first week 
went to prayer-meeting. It was a w T ork of faith, but 
he kept on going, till now he is impatient for the 
prayer-meeting to begin. He looks on Wednesday 
night as better than any other night in the week. 
Here 's a weak faith. Get at it, whether you like 
it or not, and keep at it, and then it becomes a 
labor of love. An old brother gets up in meeting 
and says : " I feel it is my duty to pray in my 
family, and I feel it is my duty to pray in public, 
and I feel it is my duty to support the Gospel." 
You old hound, you, you did n't get half a mile on 
the way to glory, yet you are running on duty ! 

"I feel it is my duty to do so and so." Sing it 
out; you have heard such people, haven't you? I 
thank God this thing of religious duty is played out 



72 Sekmons and Sayings. 

with me. I tell you what it is with me — it is a 
pleasure; it is a privilege. Why, brother, I use 
family prayer and public prayer, and read the Bible 
and visit the sick and give to the poor, just as a 
bird does its wings, to carry me where I am going to. 
Do n't you see I use these things as I use the passen- 
ger trains, to ride on to take me where I am going? 
What would you think of a man starting from home 
who would go trotting down the railroad on foot? 
You ask him why he does n't take the cars, and he 
say : " Well, I feel it my duty to go on foot." You 
know, when they first built engines they put only 
two wheels on them. They would run and make 
schedule time, but schedule time was only just three 
miles an hour, and it was all they could do to pull 
one car. After a while they put a jack under that 
engine and put eight more wheels under it, making 
ten in all, and that engine will cut along at the 
rate of fifty miles an hour, and will pull forty cars 
if you couple them on. That is the difference be- 
tween the little two-wheeled fellow and one of the 
sort they run now. Brother, you have got your two- 
wheeled business out; you will make the schedule 
time of three miles an hour. Brother, there are lots of 
your little two-wheelers saying prayers and reading 
Bibles. I want the good Lord to get under some 
of you old brothers and put eight more wheels un- 
der you. I want you to have family prayer and 
visit the sick — and make public prayers — and do 
every Christian work, for that is what Christians do 
who have the wheels to roll on. The difference be- 
tween a stationary engine and a locomotive is that 



The Church in God. 73 

the former stands still, while the latter has wheels, 
that is all. Now, brother, get up and let God 
put more wheels under you. That is what you 
want. You are making three miles an hour right 
along, but the devil can catch you whenever he 
wants to. It is no trouble for the devil to catch 
you, and keep up with you, or lie asleep an hour 
or two, and then catch up again, and give you a 
smiling and smashing up. Lord, give us wheels 
enough to keep out of the way of the devil. Just 
think of it. Three miles an hour, and on my jour- 
ney home! " Angel band, come bear me home." 
Well, if you ever get there, angels will have to 
take you, for that thing you are on will never do it. 
Now, listen, it is a labor of love to do any 
thing, and do it cheerfully. The Lord loves a 
cheerful servant ; a cheerful servant loves the Lord. 
Any thing the Lord wants done, do it cheerfully, 
gladly, lovingly. Hear that. Give cheerfully, 
work cheerfully, labor cheerfully at any thing. 
Brother, I have been asked the question many a 
time, " How can you stand so much work ?" I 
do n't know but one reason for it, and that is, I 
have gone along cheerfully and gladly from the 
day I started -ntil now, and I believe if I had 
gone along slowly and complainingly, I would have 
worked myself into the grave years ago. Brother, 
I believe cheerfulness is the journal that keeps 
down the heat. You need to get more oil, some 
of you, or you will burn up before you get to per- 
dition. Cheerfulness ! Do gladly what the Lord 
wants done. My hour is out. One or two words 



74 Sermons and Sayings. 

more and I will quit you at this hour. Paul says: 
" Remembering, without ceasing your work of faith, 
and labor of love and patience of hope, . . . For 
our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but 
also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much 
assurance." 

Now, brother, what we want at this meeting is a 
Gospel of power — mark the expression. How will 
you get it ? You know when God wants to launch 
out his laws into force to do work for himself, he 
doesn't count to see how many noses he has got. 
He goes by weight. He puts up scales and weighs 
us. Do you understand it ? There is many a great 
two-hundred-pound professor around this country, 
and you put him on God's scale and he doesn't 
weigh an ounce. He has a great, big, fat body ; 
but if you could pull out his soul, and show it, you 
would say : " What is that starved, shriveled, 
shrunken thing you have got there? Why, it 
has n't had a square meal in ten years." 



Sermon IV. 

TRUST IN GOD, AND DO RIGHT. 

"Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in 
the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also 
in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart. 
Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust o1 so in him, and he 
shall bring it to pass." — Psa. xxxvii, 3-5. 

THESE three verses which I have read cover 
about all the ground that you and I have ever 
been over or ever need go over until we have 
stepped inside the pearly gates. In each of them 
there is a precious promise, and in each one of 
these promises are conditions. I sometimes think 
we look too much to the promise, and too little at 
the conditions. I believe there is only one uncon- 
ditional promise in the Book, as pertains to life and 
salvation, and that is the promise, you remember, 
God made to Adam when he was wretched and un- 
able to comply with the conditions. God said to 
him in that lost and ruined estate : " The seed of 
the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." And 
this put Adam right where he could comply with 
the conditions, and since that all promises in the 
Book are conditional promises. 

You might ask me: "What do you mean by 
conditions?" These railroads running by, yonder, 
haul passengers, for instance, on certain conditions. 
I know of but two — one is, get your ticket; the 
other is, get aboard. And just as soon as you com- 

75 



76 Sermons and Sayings. 

ply with these conditions, then all the speed in that 
engine and all the comfort of that coach is yours 
to your destination. And when a man complies 
with the conditions of God's promises, then all the 
power there is in God and all the comfort there is 
in the Divine Spirit is his. And the world must 
learn this fact. It is not so much a question of 
who I am, but to what am I intrusted. There 's a 
good deal in that. I start to cross the Atlantic in 
a paper box, and as soon as my box gets wet it 
comes to pieces, and down it goes, and I go down 
with it. If I start in one of those grand ocean 
steamers, then all the strength in her hull, and all 
the power in her boilers, and all the skill of her 
officers is mine, and, thank God, I '11 never go down 
until she does. If I commit myself to the power 
of the flesh, I am no stronger than the thing I com- 
mit myself to ; but if I commit myself to God, I '11 
never go down until God does, and he never goes 
down. His course is upward all the way along. 

These promises, as I said, are conditional prom- 
ises, and we would be astonished to know how 
many of these promises there are in the book. 
Some man once compiled all the promises there are 
in the book, and made a book of them, and it was 
very large ; and seeing the advertisement an old 
Christian man wrote to the publishers for a copy of 
" The Promises of God," but they answered him 
that the edition was all sold, and the book was out 
of print. He buried his face in his hands and cried, 
" i The Promises of God ' out of print ! How sad ; " 
and he walked into his room and opened his Bible, 



Trust in God. 77 

and the first page was covered with precious prom- 
ises, and he said, " Thank God, this is not out of 
print." This book is full of them, and I sometimes 
think the reason we do n't realize more out of these 
promises is because we look too little to their con- 
ditions. 

There is not a condition in life but what these 
promises go down to them and up to them and 
around them. There are thirty-two thousand precious 
promises in this book. There is a promise of the 
Father to us all. That 's the precious part of it, 
and one wonders that such a Father could be so 
good to such children as we are, and my present 
joy and my eternal hope are based on the fact that 
I can look up in his face, and say, " Father, my 
Lord and my God and Jesus." I feel that God is 
my Father, just as I feel that you are my brother. 
A man who realizes that God is his Father can 
realize in the deepest sense what it is to love his 
neighbor. There is a great deal in that too. We 
are not close enough together in this world. We 
are divided. I do n't mean by rivers — I do n't 
mean by geographical stretches, but I mean that we 
are divided in that every fellow has rigged him up 
a little concern of his own and gets himself off from 
every body else. There 's too much of that. 

These promises are rich to us in proportion as 
we can realize that God is our Father, and that we 
are the children of God, and therefore brothers and 
sisters in Christ. I would scarcely consider my 
sister worthy of the name of " sister " unless she 
was better to me than to herself. I would n't own my 



78 Sermons and Sayings. 

brother if he did any thing that was too good for me. 
I would be ashamed of him, and I would despise my- 
self if the best place in my heart and home did n't 
belong to my brothers and sisters. Good Lord, 
knock out this step-brother and step-sister business, 
and help us to be blood-kin to one another. That 's 
what we want. 

These promises come to us all alike, and they 
come to us as the children of a great Father, and 
they come to us in all conditions of life, and there is 
a promise for you and one for me ; — a promise for me 
in the morning, at noon, and at night; a promise 
for me when I am living and a promise for me 
dying ; a promise for me on earth and in heaven. 
There is not an inch of the way from the hour you 
gave yourself to God until the end, that you do not 
put your foot down on a precious promise that will 
rest your body, and on which you can pillow your 
head at night. 

I appreciate the old woman that took the preacher 
home to dinner one day. She was preparing the 
dinner and the preacher picked up the Bible off the 
table, and was reading it at random, when he noticed 
the letters " T. P." marked often on the margin, and 
when she came in he said, " What does this ' T. P.* 
stand for that you have here ? " She said, " Where do 
you see it, now ? " He said, " Why, here, opposite this 
verse, i Bread shall be given him/ " " Why," said she, 
" those letters i T. P./ written on the margin of my 
Bible there, stand for i Tried and Proven ;' I have 
tried them, and proven them to be true." And so, 
brethren, we should do likewise. We should have 



Trust in God. 79 

our " T. P.'s " and be able to say, " I have tried the 
promises of God, and proven them to be true." 

These promises come to us in all their righteous- 
ness and "fullness, but we had better stop and stand 
a few minutes on their conditions. There is too 
much of this harping on the Divine side in this 
world. Every fellow thinks if the Lord would swap 
sides with him he would run in first rate. We want 
to do the running ourselves, and have God do 
the repairing. We are all perfectly willing to do 
God's part of the thing, but none is willing to do 
his own part of the business. God will never get a 
liking for you. That's your own job, and some of 
you have got a mighty tough job. God will never 
quit drinking whisky for you, and nothing in God's 
world will keep a man sober who is pouring whisky 
into his hide. Christ and whisky won't stay in the 
same hide, at the same time. 

I know when a man opens his mouth on the 
ruinous effects of whisky he is dubbed a " political 
preacher," a politician drumming for some party. I 
do n't go much on party myself. That 's so. I want 
the political parties of this country to crawl up out of 
the mud and wash themselves from head to foot and 
put on clean clothes before I have any thing to do 
with them. Instead of breaking down the political 
fence and getting in on them, I do n't think I would 
go in if they were to invite me in. 

I was running on politics ? Well, if there is one 
class of people in this country I can not pray for 
it's politicians. These politicians I can not pray 
for. Some power whispers back when I try to, 



80 Sermons and Sayings. 

"Don't talk to me about them." Do you know a 
pious politician in America to-day? Do you ? Rack 
me out one; I want to see him powerful bad. I've 
been hunting for one for years. I ain't on politics, 
but I wanted to say this much. 

I 've got the profoundest contempt for a man or 
woman that will drink wine, beer, or whisky. It's 
these things that are debauching humanity. And 
another thing I want to say. A good many of you 
are drinking beer or whisky or wine for your health. 
The devil is in it, and he does n't care whether you 
drink it for your health or not. He doesn't care 
how or why you do it — all he wants is that you do 
it. If the Church of God in America would quit 
drinking whisky and vote on this infernal whisky 
question they could starve out half the lager-beer 
saloons in the country in six months, and vote the 
balance out of sight, for half of the saloons in Cin- 
cinnati are run by Church members — I don't say 
Christians. God bless you, a Christian won't drink 
that stuff. I got religion thirteen years ago, and I 
know what a Christian can do. 

There are a dozen preachers here who know 
more than I ever will. They're posted on a thou- 
sand things I never even heard of, but I'll say this 
much; there are two things I know well, one is 
what a fellow has to do to be religious, and the 
other is what he must refuse to do to be religious. 
I know these two things as well as any one, and 
that's about enough for this occasion. 

Look at the conditions. " Commit your way to 
God and trust in him and do good, and you shall 



Trust in God. 81 

dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed," 
There is a promise covering earth and time, and 
the wants of the world ; and I am glad to say to 
you that there is not a physical want of my nature 
but what this world stands with outstretched hands 
to give it to me. I 've heard of people starving to 
death, but I never saw them. I never saw the 
coffin of a man who had starved to death. I've no 
patience with people who starve in this country — 
not a particle. 

If you want a sure successful life in this world 
in every sense, the Bible says : " Trust in the Lord 
and do good." How will I get every thing I want 
for my physical man ? " Trust in the Lord and do 
good." Trust in God and do your duty — that's it 
exactly. There 's a heap of trust in this country. 
There is the trust that makes men stand with hands 
held out a-waiting for God to drop something in. 
He will take every thing you give. That's one 
kind of trust, and that 's about nine-tenths of the 
faith in this country — a catch-all-that-comes faith. 
That 's true. Always begging for something — Lord 
bless you, if that's your faith. The country is just 
a nation of beggars — that 's the truth about it. 
Yes, it is, too — religious tramps knocking at God's 
door begging. I 've a contempt for this sort of 
thing — I have, too — always on the beg. 

I 've children, and when they hang around me 
and beg for something, I do n't give it to them ; but 
when I carry home presents and playthings for the 
little ones, and get there at midnight, the first thing 
that greets my ears when I awake in the morning is 



82 Sermons and Sayings. 

not the little fellows in there begging for some- 
thing, but they have got hold of what I have 
brought them, and have found it in the other room. 
And I hear one say : " I 've dot the best play- 
thing ;" and another says, " Ain't this nice ?" and 
" Ain't that a good papa to bring us all these nice 
things?" and as I lie there I think in my heart, 
I 'm glad I brought these things. So God has been 
bringing us things, and all we want to hear is that 
he is around, and we are right after him begging 
for something, and never show gratitude for what 
we have received. Lord, have mercy on us. We 
do n't deserve any more. 

As I said, I do n't go much on the divine side 
of the question ; I look for the assurance that God 
is faithful to what he promises. There are lots of 
preachers who are everlastingly preaching on the 
God side of redemption, on the Divinity of Christ, 
and the authenticity of the Scriptures, and of the 
mysteries of redemption, and the incarnation. La 
me! the devil doesn't want any better joke on a 
preacher than to start him off on that line. If I 
ever see a fellow on the divine side of the Gospel, 
he puts me in mind of those disciples who had 
been fishing all night, and Christ walked up to them 
and said — I can imagine I see them all languid and 
depressed with their ill luck, and hungry — " Cast 
your net on the other side of the ship, over there." 
And they said : " Why, Master, we fished all night 
and got nothing." " Put your net on the other 
side of the ship;" and they did, and it broke with 
fishes. 



Trust in God. 83 

There's many a preacher fishing on the wrong 
side of the ship— on the God side of the question. 
There ? s no fish over there. You ask one of them 
how many fish he has caught, and he will say: 
" Well, I have n't caught any, but I have had a lot 
of fine bites." Good Lord, help us to see that the 
fish are on the man side of the Gospel, and attend 
to our own business and let the Lord attend to his. 
That 's determination. Let 's stand on our side of 
the Gospel. Let us try to save souls. It's his 
business to create souls, and let him attend to his 
business. You are the fellows to bring them in, 
and Christ will attend to the rest and see that his 
blood cleanses us from all sin. If I want to dwell 
in the land and be fed of it, all I need do is to trust 
in God and do my duty. We have plenty of trust. 

St. James gave us a clincher at this point when 
he said, "Show me your faith without your works, 
and I'll show you my faith by my works." That's 
the test of a man's faith. A man is judged by faith 
here, but by works hereafter. Every man must go 
before the judgment bar on the merits of his life. 
"Because I hungered and ye fed me, come in." 
That's it. Faith without works is dead! dead! 
dead ! " Trust God, and do your duty." 

Kind friends, a better race of people never walked 
the face of earth than those of Nashville. I love 
them for their prayers and sympathy. One day 
they tried to impress on me the fact that I ought to 
accept a home in their midst and accept kindnesses 
to me and my family. I said : " I do n't need any 
house. I have a better house now than any of you. 



84 Sermons and Sayings. 

I just live all around here, and when I get there 
your wife gives me a better meal than she gives 
you, and I get a better room than you do ; and the 
fact of the business is, I 'm getting along better than 
you all." Trust in God and do your duty, and 
every thing in this country is wide open. 

I'll tell you what's true. Since I gave my 
heart to God I have had three square meals a day — 
you can tell it by my looks — and plenty of good 
clothes, and have any of you more than that? If 
you have, what's done with it? Get it out here. 
You won't have it long. While you do have it it's 
a heap of trouble. I mixed with some of the old 
rich fellows in one town, and I told 'em I would n't 
swap places forty-eight hours with any of 'em. 

I don't want to run a three or four-hundred- 
thousand dollar concern for my board and lodging 
and clothes. I 've got too much sense for that. 
John Jacob Astor was walking on Broadway one 
day, and two fellows were walking behind him, and 
one says : " Jim, would you attend to all old Astor's 
business for your meals and clothes?" Jim said : 
"No; I'm no fool." "Well," says the other, 
"that's all old Astor gets." He owned twenty 
thousand houses in New York, and he could n't live 
in more than one of them to save his life, and I 
live in that many myself, and I get along as well as 
he did. I'm not bothered with the thing. Money 
is like walking-sticks ; one will help you along, but 
fifty on your back will break you down. Money is 
like salt water; the more you get the more you want. 
When you are full you want it worse than ever. 



Tkust in God. 85 

If a fellow has ten thousand dollars he wants 
twenty ; if he has twenty he hankers for forty, and 
so on, and when he has a hundred thousand dollars 
he is a great, big, downright lump of selfishness 
from head to foot. If I were to follow the earth's 
plan — I have a wife and little children — I would go 
to work and buy two or three thousand bolts of 
linen, bleaching and domestic; buy five thousand 
cases of shoes, two or three thousand suits of clothes 
for my boys, and build a big warehouse and fill it 
with flour, and lard, and hams, and I am laid up 
then for hard times. I want to have plenty, you 
know. I would rather have my little home than 
have the job of keeping rats and thieves off the 
building, and I '11 have an easier job. I can get to 
sleep when night comes. There 's a heap in that. 
I met an old fellow in the city some time ago when 
the banks were shaky. He said: "I'm troubled; 
the money interests of this country are in an awful 
condition ; and our banks have locked up what we 
have." I said : " Why, I did not know that." He 
said : " Why, the papers are full of it." " I never 
read any thing about banks," I answered ; " I *m not 
interested in that part of the paper." 

Brethren, I'll tell you one thing; you may let 
every bank in the country break, and they won't 
get me for a nickel — I haven't any thing to lose. 
I never want to be afraid some one would steal what 
I had before I wake in the morning. They would n't 
steal it if they knew I had n't more than I wanted. 
Trust God and do right, and you won't starve. 
When I joined the North Georgia Conference I was 



86 Sermons and Sayings. 

bankrupted — I've never got over it, in fact — but it 
did n't bother me. 

I was put on a circuit that paid the preacher the 
year before $65. I had a wife and one child, a 
horse and $8 — that was my assets. I took charge 
of the circuit, and the thought never struck me that 
I could not live. I was glad I had a place to work 
for Christ. I had to give my note for $120 to get 
a house— that was twice as much as the preacher got 
the year before. An old brother in the Church said 
tome: " You '11 starve; you can not live on this 
circuit." I said, I 'm going to stay here. Well, I 
did my best. I think I preached about five hun- 
dred times a year on circuits when I first started, and 
along about April of the first year my wife said to me : 
" Every thing is out, money and provisions and all." 

Brethren, did you ever notice how r every thing 
gives out at once, coffee, flour, and so on? I said, 
" Wife, it '11 all come right. The Bible says so, and 
I '11 starve to death if it is n't true. I have done 
my duty the best I could." It was not more than 
an hour after this that a neighboring brother drove 
up with a wagon load of stuff, and I had more in my 
house then than I ever had since. " Trust in God 
and do your duty." I said to my wife then, " We '11 
stay right here and not say a word, and if you and 
I and the child do starve we '11 let 'em think we 
died of typhoid fever. Whenever you put your trust 
in God and do your duty you '11 come out ahead 
every time." I'm sorry if any brother is uneasy 
about his salary. Do your duty. No work is hard 
if Christ is with us, and will bless us in our work. 



Trust in God. 87 

I wouldn't give the spirit of the old negro 
woman down South for all of the alleged faith of 
some Christians. She was coming down the street 
with a big basket of clothes, singing happily as a 
lark, when a citizen said to her: "Good morning, 
aunty, you seem to be as happy as a lark this 
morning.". " Well," said she, " I is, boss." " Have 
you any money laid up?" "No, boss, I hasn't." 
"A home of your own?" " ISTo, boss." "Well, how 
do you live ?" " I washes for it," said she. " Sup- 
pose you get sick and could n't work, what would 
become of you?" Said the old black woman, cheer- 
fully, " I neber s'poses any thing of de kind, boss. 
The Lord is my Shepherd, and I ain 't going to 
want." I would n't give the spirit of that old 
woman for all the money in America, when it comes 
down to facts. 

I have seen some members of the Church who 
said they were starving, and I thought it was a good 
thing. And I 've seen some preachers nearly starv- 
ing, and I remember a minister who despised the 
way the people had of putting off punched nickels 
on him. He said it was scandalous. I said: "You 
needn't complain, you've got the drop on them; 
you put off punched sermons on them." That's 
about even. 

"Trust in God and do your duty," that's it; 
and I 've never yet known a faithful, sacred man to 
want, and that's all we can have in this world — 
what we eat and wear. Said one of these rich fel- 
lows to me, " Jones, do you want us rich men to 
scatter our money all over town ? What would be- 



88 Sermons and Sayings. 

come of us?" I said you '11 have it back in twelve 
months. All you lose will be only one year's inter- 
est, that's all. They will have it again if it's 
turned loose to-morrow. That's true. 

Affinities sometimes determine some questions. 
" Trust in the Lord and do good." Do your duty, 
and this world has never witnessed the fact that 
you should not be cared for in this life. I do n't 
mean that a man should turn loose and do nothing 
in the world but sing and pray. It is my religious 
duty to work as well as pray. I never saw a real 
lazy man in my life that I had any confidence in his 
religion. A lazy preacher — of course you have n't 
any in Ohio — is a man God will not have much to do 
with. A fellow gets religion, he gets it in his blood 
and muscle, all over, from head to foot, and it makes 
an industrious man out of him. It'll make a 
woman industrious. There are women in this world 
who have n't struck a lick of work with their own 
hands for years. They board and lie around and 
about ; all they do is shop, shop, shop. Hell is full 
of such women as that ! That sort can not go to 
heaven. 

I do n't care how much you work — it 's Christian. 
If you're worth a million dollars, what's that 
compared to the wealth of the whole continent? 
And yet you think you are some one if you own a 
few nickels ! They 're the poorest thing a fellow 
was ever loaded down with. You can scatter nickels 
along the way ten feet apart, and you can tole a 
man into hell w 7 ith them. You know what sort of 
animals you can tole. I 'm not reflecting on any 



Teust in God. 89 

one here, mind you. "I'm just insinuating a 
reference," as the old fellow said. " Get all I can — 
keep all I have," is the curse of the world and the 
Church. That's it. 

Take the next promise: "He will give you the 
desires of your heart." That ? s a bigger promise 
than the other. Do you know how to get every 
thing you want? "Delight thyself in the Lord." 
There 's too much moping and sad religion in this 
world. It 's not religion — it ? s not Christianity. 
That 's what I mean. Many a Christian is moping 
through this world with a long face, as if his father 
were dead, and left him out of his will, without a cent. 
If the Lo?d God, my Father, had done that I 
couldn't look worse than a great many of these 
Christian people. Some of us think it 's a sin to 
laugh. 

One good sister went away the other night and 
said : " I do n't like so much levity." Poor soul, 
I hope you 're much better by this time. If you 
take a tonic to-day you '11 be still better to-morrow. 
"I don't like so much levity." Call this levity? 
Crack these jokes one at a time, and you '11 find 
every one of 'em has the red-hot sting of a hornet 
tangled up in it, and you '11 get stung. If you think 
it 's levity it 's because you have a levitous mind. 
There is no levity in this world; so it seems to a 
fellow who has dyspepsia, but not to a naturally 
healthy man. The only levitous thing about it is, 
I hold up the looking-glass, and you people laugh 
at your carcasses reflected there. 

Religion never was intended to make our pleas- 



90 Sermons and Sayings. 

ures less, and in eternal loyalty to God I yield the 
palm to none, and no man shall unchristianize me 
because I do n't mope about like some of these fel- 
lows. If they want dignity wait until I die, and 
I '11 be as dignified as any of you. Just wait. 
What 's a preacher any more than a man ? How can a 
religious man be any more sacred ? Tell me that. 
I would n't do a thing at home that I would n't do 
at Church. Want to drag the Church down? No, 
I want to drag home up. Some people are solemn, 
serious, and very pious at Church, and they '11 come 
to Church pious and sleek and say, " I do n't like 
that merriment." You ought to have your neck broke. 

The reason why the Church makes no progress 
in this world is because every fellow goes at it as 
if the Lord was working him to death and paying 
him nothing for it. That 's about it. If this sad, 
solemn, drooping, dignified piety is what makes your 
religion, I want it before I die, but I don't want 
it until just about a minute before I die — I don't 
want to be loaded with it while I live. If religion 
means I shall mope and cry and must not laugh, it 
would be too short to stretch myself on it, and too 
narrow to curl myself up in it. " Delight thyself 
in the Lord." Have you ever been to a prayer- 
meeting in this city, or a town prayer-meeting? 

The preacher walks in solemnly and almost 
noiselessly, and the old brethren come in and scat- 
ter around the church as far apart as possible; one 
brother is called to sing and another to pray, and 
then after prayer they '11 go home sneakingly and 
call it "growing in grace." O Lord, what a lone- 



Trust in God. 91 

some time they have had. The Lord doesn't go 
within a mile of 'era, and the devil gets in. I 
would as soon pray to make a shade-tree out of my 
walking-stick as try to grow in grace at a meeting 
like that. It's a disgrace to us, and yet the old 
corpse says : "I do n't like such merriment at 
Church, and so much levity at Church. I wish 
you would make us cry." I do n't believe there 's 
a bit of piety in crying. There 's no meanness 
in laughter. I tell you as long as the light of 
my Father's face shines on me I am going to carry 
a smile through the world. Whenever a man can 't 
laugh, he 's in need of a liver medicine. There 's 
something wrong with him. Many a fellow in this 
country has mistaken a disordered liver for religion — 
a miserable old dose it is to carry. I do n't care 
whether a man laughs or cries at Church. I want 
to know whether he 's a good husband or father 
and a good neighbor. 

I want a religion that will keep me straight, 
and not one that keeps my mouth shut and makes 
me look pious, and enables me to cover up my 
meanness with my looks. The matter with the 
Church is, it is hidebound. Some of you don't 
know what that expression means. It means that 
your hide gets full and wants loosening up, and 
you have got down in your coffin and you need a 
thorough shaking up. 

We have disgusted the world with our religion — 
it 's not attractive to the race, because our religion is 
without joy, gladness, smiles, and songs. I want 
every man to go with a quick step to prayer-meet- 



92 Sermons and Sayings. 

ing, and for their first song let them break out on 
"All hail the power of Jesus' name" with a rush, 
and call on some brother to pray with a rush, and 
let him drop on his knees and pray with a rush, and 
let him stand up and sing with a rush, and talk with 
a rush and go home with a rush. 

" Commit yourself to God, and he will bring it 
to pass." That's the biggest promise in the book. 
How will you get all things ? Commit yourself to 
God. So it is with man. You go to a stable and 
get a horse and buggy, and you can drive and 
guide the horse as you please. He wants to go 
everywhere, but will go anywhere he is guided. 
Pull on his left rein, he goes left ; pull on the right, 
he goes to the right ; say " whoa," he stops ; knock 
the lines on his back, and he goes forward. That's 
the way with religion. 

God has lines and guides you by them, but 
sometimes you are balky and won't go, and he pulls 
on the lines, and your mouth gets away up under 
your ear, like the old mule that is balky and won't 
go; and the mule will point his head in the wrong 
direction, but the body goes the way the mule 
goes. Stand here some night, and see that sister 
headed for the theater on Wednesday night. God 
wants her to go to prayer-meeting, and he will pull 
on that line ; and the devil wants her to go to the 
theater, and he pulls on that line. 

She's like a dog following two men on the 
street — you can't tell to whom the dog belongs. 
But you follow them out to the forks of the road 
where the two men separate, and then you 'II know 



Trust in God. 93 

whom the dog belongs to. So, stand in this city 
on Wednesday night, at the forks of the road, with 
the prayer-meeting here and the theater there, and, 
as she comes along and reaches the forks, then 
you '11 know whose servant she is. If you go to the 
theater Wednesday or any other night you are the 
devil's dog. The faith that believes every thing, 
and does nothing, is worth nothing to a man. 

Do n't criticise me, but criticise yourself. You 
can pick a thousand flaws in my sermon, but look 
out for yourselves. You can 't say any thing worse 
about me than I can about you. If there 's any 
thing I despise it's a dull time. I like to see 
things move up. You can not harm me. Some 
men open their mouths to laugh, and you can drop 
a great big brickbat of truth right in. It's the 
biggest thing a man has — a laughing mouth. A 
man can be pious and laugh, but let him not laugh 

at the truth ! 

♦ 

SAYINGS. 

There is not an angel in heaven that is proof 
against bad company. 

The Bible was not given to teach me the way 
the heavens go; but to teach me the way to go to 
heaven. 

A big nose is a sign of intellect; a big mouth, 
character; a big chin, courage; and big ears, gen- 
erosity. Some of you pastors ought to get ear- 
fertilizers ; for there are more little 'possum-eared 
Church members in this country than you can count 



Sermon V, 

THE LOSS OF THE SOUL,. 

"For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in 
exchange for his soul ?" — Mark viii, 36, 37. 

CHRIST JESUS, the author of this question, the 
author of this text, was a wonderful preacher. 
He was w r onderful in that he was always practical. 
No man could leave an audience to whom Jesus 
had preached, and say : " Well, he discussed some 
theological dogma I was not interested in. He was 
arguing some ecclesiastical question that I felt no 
personal concern for." But Jesus had some things 
to say to every one. Why, when he preached he 
looked over at the farmers present, and said : " Listen, 
you farmers, you tillers of the soil. The kingdom 
of heaven is like unto a man going out to sow 
seed." He looked over at the fishermen present, 
and said : " Give me your attention. The kingdom 
of heaven is like a net let down into the water." 
When Jesus preached to the house-carpenters, he 
said : " Give me your ear. Take heed how you 
build." And when he preached to the housewives 
present, he said : " Hear ; the kingdom of heaven 
is like unto three measures of meal in which you 
put the leaven, and when you go back you will find 
the whole lump leavened." When he preached to 
the merchants and business men present, he looked 
94 



The Loss of the Soul. 95 

them in the face and said : " You men who run on 
profit and loss, what shall it profit you, if you gain 
the whole world and lose your soul ?" 

This was a practical question eighteen hundred 
years ago ; it is a very practical question now. 
This country is running on profit and loss. This is 
a nation of bargain-makers ; a nation of traders. 
We commence trading in this country about the 
time we begin to talk. Little boys will swap knives ; 
little girls will trade dolls. We begin to hunt up 
bargains as soon as we learn to walk. The mer- 
chants who draw the most customers are the mer- 
chants who put up a Big Bargains" in great letters 
over their store doors. Every one is hunting 
bargains. 

This is a question, brethren, practical now — it 
reaches every body. Why ? It is true. You can 7 t 
get a Congressman to speak on any thing except the 
tariff; and that 's the only difference now between 
the two great national parties — the tariff. And that 
question has got to be a sort of differentiated differ- 
ence. Why, if a daughter is going to marry to- 
morrow, the would-be father-in-law does n't measure 
the to-be son-in-law's brain force, nor his nervous 
energies, but he measures his pocket-book and his 
capacity for making money. If you want to get a 
big collection now in the Churches out of the pockets 
of God's people, all you need to do is to convince 
them beyond reasonable doubt that God will give 
them two dollars for every one they put in the con- 
tribution box ; if you do that, you '11 get a whopping 
big collection on that occasion. 



96 Sermons and Sayings. 

This is the question now of all questions — the 
question of profit and loss, and this question comes 
home to every conscience here to-night. You men 
who add up your debit and credit columns day 
after day, stop a moment and ask yourselves this 
question: " What shall it profit a man if he gain 
the whole world and lose his soul?" I believe it 
was Talmage who said once: "A man is very un- 
wise to make an exchange like this— his soul for the 
world." He said there is n't a piece of property in 
the world, in an eternal sense, for which you can 
get a deed, or that you can get any insurance upon. 

If I were a merchant in Cincinnati and had ac- 
cumulated my fortune and decided " now I will buy 
me a beautiful farm and move out into the country, 
to recuperate and rest at my ease the balance of my 
life; I will find me just such a plantation as suits 
me — its mansions, its out-buildings, its bottom-lands, 
its table-lands, its woodlands, its brooks, its springs, 
its all; here is the place that suits me exactly;" 
but before a wise man will count down any money 
for it, he will go to the Books of Deeds and Mort- 
gages and Liens to see if there is any thing against 
that property. No man will count his money down 
for a piece of property until he is certain he can get 
a clean title. Before you count down your money 
and make the trade and enter it in writing and take 
possession of this property, suppose you look around. 
You may take the property, and before you are in 
possession of it ten minutes old death may come 
along and say, " Off these premises," and off you go. 
How many men in this world have I seen just fixed 



The Loss of the Soul. 97 

up for living well; their home just finished and 
furnished nicely and every thing arranged for com- 
fort and long life and old age, and in just ten 
months after they have finished their place, black 
crape was hung on the front door knob and the 
hearse was brought up before their residence. How 
much of that thing have you seen, my brother? 

In my own town I can remember almost a dozen 
places which men have arranged, and rearranged 
for comfort and ease, and just after every thing was 
well arranged, death came along, and there was a 
coffin in the house, with the shroud, and the weep- 
ing wife, and the crying children that came instead 
of peace and enjoyment. If I could build a palace 
and so arrange its doors and windows that death 
could not come in on me, I might make a trade like 
this; but death comes in here with fearful grief, 
and enters the palace and the hovel alike, and there 
is no power that can do away with it. 

Suppose you had a piece of property and you 
wanted it insured, and you asked the insurance 
agent to come up and see and examine the premises. 
The insurance agent starts up with you, and when 
you get to the front gate you see flames bursting 
out of the basement or the cellar of that building. 
The insurance agent turns round to you and he 
says, " Good-bye, I can *t insure that property, it is 
already on fire down in the basement." What about 
the insurance on this old world? Geologists tell us 
it is on fire away down in the basement, and Ve- 
suvius and iEtna are but the chimneys to the con- 
flagration below, and the molten lava flows year 



98 Sermons and Sayings. 

after year and never ends; God's word for it, this 
old world shall be burned up. Astronomers have 
swept their telescopes across the skies, and have 
told us that a dozen worlds have disappeared in the 
last few decades ; they tell us, at first they look like 
other worlds, then they turn a deep blood-red, showing 
that they are on fire ; and then they turn to an ashen 
color, showing that they have been burned to ashes; 
and then at last they disappear completely from all 
human eyes. 

What, give my soul for a piece of property I 
can't get a title to; and if I could get a title to it, 
I can y t get any insurance on it ! Another thing : 
In our Southern city of Atlanta, on one of our pret- 
tiest streets, there is a very beautiful lot. Go there 
and ask the real-estate agent : " Why does n't some 
one build on this lot?" and he will tell you: "Sir, 
because every man that ever had any thing to do 
with that property has got into trouble about it. 
He buys a lawsuit." It is as true and as deep as 
nature, that every man that ever had any thing to 
do with this old world has got into trouble about 
it. The most miserable man in this city to-night, 
is the man that has got millions of dollars. I do n't 
know who he is, nor where he lives, and practically, 
by the grace of God, I never want to know who 
he is. 

Some one said : " God showed what he thought 
of riches by the people he gave them to." I do n't 
know whether there is any thing in that or not. 
Many a man is wallowing in luxury and wealth in 
this world, many a man who has given himself up 



The Loss of the Soul. 99 

to money making and money accumulating, and en- 
joying himself — for what? I say: "You old fellow, 
you're a fattening hog that doesn't know what he 
eats corn for." In trouble about it? I can say 
this much : Here 's one man that was born poor, 
and raised poor, but I have held my own, and I 
have been at it so long I 've become used to it, and 
it does n't hurt me a bit in the world — poverty 
doesn't. That's the plain truth about it. 

I '11 tell you another thing : One of our million- 
aires down in Georgia was a liberal man in the 
highest sense of that word, and when disaster 
brought him down to pennilessness and nothingness 
in finances, he said, " I went into my room and fell 
down on my knees and prayed, i Lord God, explain 
to me why my money has all been swept away. I 
did my duty I thought; I have divided with the 
poor and given to the Church, and now it is all 
gone. Lord, Lord, explain it to me. I am in trouble 
about it.' I opened my Bible on my knees, and my 
eyes fell instantly on this passage, * It is easier for 
a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for 
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven/ 
When I read this I just clapped my hands and said 
gladly to God, 'I will have infinite life if I die a 
pauper.' " 

You give a man much money these days and 
he gets very independent of God ! That 's true. I 
am surprised at a man getting so stuck up with a 
little money too. Here 's a fellow worth one hun- 
dred thousand dollars ; he thinks he's rich. Here's 
a man that's worth five hundred thousand dollars; 



100 Sermons and Sayings. 

he thinks he 's rich. Suppose you are worth five 
millions, what's that compared to the city of Cin- 
cinnati? Suppose you own the whole city of Cin- 
cinnati, what's that compared to New York City? 
Suppose you own both cities, what's that compared 
to the whole United States of America ? And sup- 
pose you own all America, what 's that compared to 
Europe, with all its wealth ? And suppose you own 
the whole world, and every bit of it is yours, you 
could put two such worlds as this in your pocket, 
and go up to the Dog Star and stay there all night, 
even then you wouldn't have enough to pay your 
lodging. What are you cutting up about? Put- 
ting on airs with a couple of thousand dollars. " What 
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul ?" 

Brethren, hear me ! A man's wealth does n't 
consist in the abundance he possesses. I tell you, 
the richest man in this city, in my opinion, is the 
man who is contented with his lot. " Godliness 
with contentment is great gain." 

What does a man want with a pile of money 
when he has to work the life out of him to make 
it, and has to work twice harder to keep it after he 
does make it? What does he want with it? It's 
just like what you hear when an old millionaire 
dies. You can hear one neighbor of his meet 
another on the street and say : " Mr. So-and-so, the 
millionaire, has just died, and left all his money, 
by his will, to the bar-keepers of the town." a Why, 
what do you mean ?" says the fellow. "Well," says 
the neighbor, " he did n't do it directly, but he did 



The Loss of the Soul. 101 

it indirectly ; he left it to the boys, and the bar- 
keepers will soon get it all." 

Mark, fathers, who hear me to-night. Look to 
the interests of your soul and the interests of your 
children. Let me say this to you : " If I could 
provide a little competency for my wife, who has 
given me and my children all her life, I would n't 
leave a dollar in this world to any one of my chil- 
dren ; if they 're any good they won't need it, and 
if they ain't, leaving it to them will make them of 
no account." That's logic, brethren, as resistless 
as eternity. You can 't dodge it. Many a fellow 
in this country says, " I ain't making this money 
for myself, I'm just laying it up for Sallie and the 
children." Yes, and you will give your life for 
money, and hoard it, and lay it up for Sallie and 
the children, but if you could see Sallie and the 
children six months after you are dead — Sallie with 
her new teeth and the boys with their fine turn- 
outs, you 'd be surprised to see how well Sallie and 
the children get along without you. You would that. 

I heard of one old man who gave his life for 
money, and spent his time getting money and pil- 
ing it up for his wife and children ; and the preacher 
told me he was visiting at the house about six 
months after the old man died, and they put him 
in one of the garret-rooms. When he went in he 
saw a picture, with its face to the wall, standing 
over in the corner, and he went to it and turned 
it around, and saw it was the old man's picture. 
They put it away off there, and turned its face to 
the wall. That's a pretty bad state of things, isn't 



102 Sermons and Sayings. 

it? And that old man had given his life, literally, 
to money-getting. Let 's see something bigger than 
a dollar, and something better than stocks and 
bonds. I will, tell some of you here to-night, you 
may be kneeling on your bonds, but I am kneeling 
on the promises of God, and I'll be standing up 
when you 've been swept down forever. 

Do n't any body say I 'm talking against riches ; 
I ain't ; I am glad we have rich men, but I despise 
an old rich hog. I do. I am glad of every wealthy 
man in this country. A great many think that 
money is the root of all evil. That's a mistake. 
The Book never said that. It says the love of it is 
the root of all evil ; and there are more poor men 
going to hell for the love of money — on the prin- 
ciple that white sheep eat more than black sheep — 
because there are more of 'em. 

I 've gone into cities and looked at the large 
stores, gotten up, engineered, and run on the brain 
of one man ; and I 've said, " I do n't begrudge that 
man his money, for, I declare, a man that takes a 
business like that on his mind has n't a minute in 
the year to give to God." That 's true ! " They 
that will be rich fall into divers temptations and 
pierce themselves through with many sorrows. It 
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a 
needle" — and that means the arch simply of the gate, 
and the only way a camel can get through at all is 
to unload his burden off his back. 

One of the old millionaires down our way sent 
for me once, and he said: "Mr. Jones, I want to 
talk to you. I have given my heart to God and 



The Loss of the Soul. 103 

my hand to the Church." I said: "Old brother, 
you have done all that, you have given your soul 
to God, but you will find it is a thousand times 
easier to manage your soul than all this money you 
have piled up here. You will break into hell about 
that sure. You 'd better begin to stir your stumps 
and give some of that money away pretty soon, for 
you 're right smart behind with God." 

I am not talking against monev. The best man 
this world ever saw was the richest man, and that 
man was Abraham. He could have left one of his 
servants more than Vanderbilt left all his children, 
and yet Abraham was one of the best saints this 
world ever saw. Thank God for every rich man 
who loves God and uses his money wisely. Do n't 
say now I 'm preaching against riches. 

I '11 tell you one thing : Riches you get wrongly 
will not only curse you, but it will curse your fam- 
ily after you are dead and gone. I was talking this 
evening about the ill-gotten gains of some man in At- 
lanta. A poor family was found by a reporter 
starving to death, and nearly frozen in the late cold 
spell, and when they came to find the cause, it was 
learned that they were making garments for a house 
in Atlanta that was paying them fifteen cents a 
dozen. That sort of money will turn into brim- 
stone, and you will carry enough brimstone to hell 
with you to burn you forever, if that 's the way 
you get your money. I will tell you another thing : 
Fifteen cents a dozen for making garments is the 
essence of communistic fire that will burn this 
country up some of these days. 



104 Sermons and Sayings. 

" What shall it profit a man if he gain this whole 
world and lose his own soul ?" A man ought never 
to buy or sell any thing without remembering that 
he has got a soul in his body to be saved or lost. 
What will it profit a man now if he gain the whole 
world? My brethren, we do not expect to get 
much of it; be as lucky as we may, we can not 
accumulate much. There is a certain class in this 
world I have a great contempt for. We have pau- 
pers down in our country, and we have what we 
call poor-houses, where we put our paupers, the old 
and decrepit and the helpless that have no home, 
nor board, nor friends, and we furnish a house and 
a home for that sort; but the finest specimen of a 
pauper that I ever saw was a young man twenty- 
five years old, who had no money and no religion, 
no stocks and bonds and no hope of heaven, no 
house nor horse, and no peace with God through 
Jesus Christ. There is the finest specimen of a 
pauper that this world ever saw. That tall fellow 
back there is serving the devil for nothing and 
boarding himself, or rather he is making his poor 
old mother board him. You are the meanest 
wretch this earth ever saw. 

Men supported by their wives who sit at the 
needle sixteen hours every day to support a drunken 
husband, or a no-account son ; that is serving the 
devil every minute for nothing, and making his 
poor, helpless wife or mother support him. O, 
how poor is a character like that. I think when a 
man gets to where he won't support himself, and his 
w T ife has to do it, it is time then for the decent 



The Loss of the Soul. 105 

people of that community to tie a rock about his 
neck and drop him gently in the river, and say 
nothing about it ; do n't mention it. And, I ven- 
ture the assertion, you have a thousand just such 
cases in this city. I hate to see a man boarding 
with his wife when his wife is rich ; but, O my ! 
how I do hate it if he 's boarding with his wife 
when she is poor, and has to work for a living. 

What will it profit a man if he gain the whole 
world — if he gain all there is in it, and lose his 
soul? O, how inexpressibly foolish it is in a man 
to get none of the world and then die a pauper, 
and be a pauper in hell for all eternity. I said 
many a time, if there are any people in this world 
that I do want to be religious, it is the poor white 
folks and negroes. Many of them never have any 
thing much in this world, and then they die and go to 
hell, eternal paupers. It is the most awful thought 
I can conceive of. Those old fellows who have 
carriages and horses, and drink twelve-dollar cham- 
pagne all their lives, they can afford to be damned, 
if any body can ; but those fellows who have never 
had any thing here can not afford it. 

The Lord save the poor people of this city, if 
those who have plenty won't be saved ! I am in 
for the poor people of the city. God save them. 
I hope they will come and fill every chair and pew 
in this hall. I have known some preachers, and 
all they wanted in the world was just to see one 
old major or old colonel come in and take his seat, 
and they would not look at any body else except the 
old major or the old colonel and see whether they 



106 Sermons and Sayings. 

were impressing him or not. Look here, you have 
found one preacher at least who do n't go much on 
these colonels and judges and majors. Who are 
they? The old red-nosed colonel and the old foul- 
mouthed major, I would n't wipe my feet on one at 
my front door. I have never seen one that was of 
much account after you got him. What* do you 
want with him ? His habits have been so bad, and 
his life has been so crooked, that when he joins the 
Church he has just to stand and fight the devil all the 
time, and if he stops only long enough to spit on his 
hands the devil has him all at once. Now, I am 
not after them. Let those other preachers, if they 
want to, run after the old colonel and the old major 
and the judge; but God give me the blood and 
muscle and the brain of this country to be relig- 
ious, and the blood and muscle and brain that 
have not been debauched in sin for forty years. 

" What shall it profit a man if he gain this 
whole world and lose his own soul?" Now, breth- 
ren, when we consider this world, it is a glorious 
world. Thank God for such a world to live in for 
threescore years and ten. If I want water, three- 
fourths of the earth's surface is covered with water; 
if I want light, I have the meridian splendors of 
the sun by day, and at night he sprinkles the 
heaven like a swarm of golden bees ; if I want 
flowers, well — 

" Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its fragrance on the desert air." 

If I want books, the millions of shelves laden with 
precious works bid me come and read; if I w T ant 



The Loss of the Soul. 107 

friends, there are fourteen hundred millions of beings 
around me, and God says take them every one for 
your friends ; if I want bread, hundreds of millions 
of acres of the harvest field wave towards me and 
tell me, Here come and satisfy your hunger; if I 
want gold, the bowels of the earth are full of gold ; 
if I want any thing that man could desire, and 
that sense could ask for, this world says, Here it 
is, come and take it. And I know that God has 
prepared a grand world for us hereafter, because he 
has made such a world for us to live down here in 
a few days. 

But, brother, now you begin to talk about 
eternity, and this world isn't worth much. Here 
is a picture in London : A man — an eminent 
banker — was stricken with meningitis ; he sent for 
the doctor ; the doctor came and examined him, 
and said to him : " You have meningitis ; throe 
hours and you are gone." The banker turned his 
whitened face up into the face of the doctor, and 
said: "Have you spoken the truth?" " Yes, I 
have spoken the truth." " AVell, doctor, if you will 
keep me alive until to-morrow morning I will give 
you a hundred thousand pounds." Half a million 
dollars ! The doctor looked at him and said : " I have 
prescriptions to give and remedies to administer, 
but I have no time to sell. Time belongs to God." 
That shows you about what this world is worth 
when a man comes to die. 

Look at Cornelius Yanderbilt. He had just said 
to AVilliam, " I leave you seventy-five millions," 
and to his other children and wife twentv-five mil- 



108 Sermons and Sayings. 

lions. Here is a round one hundred millions. "I 
am the money king of America, and I give and 
bequeath this to my children." And then he turned 
over on his bed and looked on the face of his Chris- 
tian wife and said, " Come, Avife, now you can sing 
to me, ' Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak 
and wounded, sick and sore/ " The money king 
of America lay dying a pauper upon his bed. 
Call that success? God help me never to succeed 
that way. 

If I have one thing to be grateful for it is this, 
for when my father bid me good-bye he simply said, 
" Son, son, make your father the promise that you 
will meet him in a better land;" and I shook his 
hand and told him good-bye; and my father did not 
leave a nickel in my hand. I believe if he had left 
me twenty thousand or fifty thousand dollars that I 
would have gone immediately and invested it in a 
through ticket for hell, and that I would be there 
this minute. Recollect, fathers, if your children 
are of any account they do n't need your money, 
and if they are of no account every dollar you give 
them will sink them down ! down ! ! down ! ! ! 

Now a moment or two and I am done. We 
look at the other side of this question. I have 
nothing to say against this world. Be comfortable ; 
have your good home if you can ; have comfort all 
around you. God has put enough here for every 
one of us to have a good home and be comfortable. 
But, my good brother, always look for eternity. 
Get ready ; prepare, prepare. I can not afford to 
give my soul to this world. No, sir; no, sir. My 



The Loss of the Soul. 109 

soul! my soul! Why, sir, hear me a moment on 
this, my soul. The time will come when my soul 
will take my body and lay it down just as a boy 
throws down his ball when he is tired playing 
with it. 

The time will come when ray soul will take my 
body and lay it aside, just as you have laid aside some 
old implement about your house or farm that you 
won't use any more. My soul ! The time will 
come in the future when wife and children shall 
gather around my dying couch, and the doctors 
press their way into the circle, and my soul, just a 
moment will watch and wait, and then it will push 
the doctor back from my dying couch and overleap 
the circle of friends around my bed, and above stars 
and moon it goes, and overvaults the very throne 
of God. 

My soul ! My soul ! Shall I give it in ex- 
change for this world? No, sir; no, sir. 

A father in one of the Southern cities said to 
me : " Two of my boys are dissipated, and, O, my 
money will ruin my boys, and I know it." Said 
I : " You say you Ve got money enough to ruin 
them both?" " Yes." "And you are certain it will 
ruin them?" Said he: ".Yes." Said I, "I'll tell 
you how to dodge that thing." Said he: "How?" 
" Well," said I, " give me this afternoon $20,000 
a-piece of those two boys' money for the orphan 
home out here, and you go home to-night and say 
to Tom and Henry, i I have given Sam Jones $20,- 
000 of each of your money, and the very next time 
you get drunk I am going to give him $40,000 of 



110 Sermons and Sayings. 

each of your money; and further, on your third 
drunk, I will make him a deed for that orphans' 
home for every dollar I have got/ And/' said I, 
"you will straighten them boys right out — you will 
that." And before my money should damn my 
children, I say to you to-night, I would give it all 
to the orphan homes of the country. Well, as I 
said, I told him what he should do with his money, 
and, strange to say, he never gave me a cent. I 
am afraid he will be in the pit before his boy is. 

You can go down among the rich bottoms of 
the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and there you 
find the most impure water; and you find the most 
malarious atmosphere in the rich bottoms of the 
Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. You can go up 
among the old red hills of Georgia, and the clearest 
sparkling water you ever saw gurgles up through 
the old red clay, and the sweetest atmosphere blows 
over the old red hills of Georgia. Among the rich 
of this earth is the most corruption, and the most 
wickedness, and the most guilt. Among the poor 
of the earth you will find the sweetest virtues and 
the noblest characters. Let us live among the poor. 
Let us have a good atmosphere and good water. 

And I will tell you, brother, that when a man 
gets drunk on money he is gone. You preachers 
are not candid with him. You do not tackle him 
as you should. When an old fellow gets drunk 
w r ith whisky his friends go to him and say, " Look 
here, old fellow, you are going to the devil. I wish 
you would quit and keep straight." His wife pleads 
with him. The minister pleads with him. Every 



The Loss of the Soul. Ill 

body pleads with him. But when a fellow gets 
drunk with money, bless you, his wife does not say 
any thing about it. She enjoys the "creetur" her- 
self; she does not say, " Husband, you are going 
to perdition."- The preacher does not tackle him; 
he is afraid to. There '$ many a man in this town 
drunk with money. Have you, brethren, been up 
to tell him "You are drunk with money, and the 
devil will get you?" You never tackle such men. 
You just say, "I want the favor of these old rich 
fellows, because I know if I bother them they will 
get mad with me and neutralize my action and 
neutralize my power, and I can not do any thing;" 
and you think " The best thing to do is to let the 
old fellow alone. I do n't want to antagonize him, 
but just make him pay his way along." O, sir, 
when a man gets drunk on money nobody bothers 
him then. He just goes on and on, and to per- 
dition he goes forever. 

" What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul?" We will make this 
discussion a little more practical and bring it down 
to where Ave have a practical interest in it in every 
sense. I want to say to you right now, I do not 
know what it is keeps you from being a Christian — 
you men sitting there. I can not tell what it is 
keeps you out of the Church and away from God, 
but I will say that whatever it is, whether it is 
a dance, or a dram, or licentiousness, I do not care 
what it is that keeps you away from Christ and 
out of the Church, you can put all those things 
together in one common pile and point to the pile 



112 Sermons and Sayings. 

and say : " That is the price I put on my immor- 
tality. That is the price I have sold it for." 

That young man says : " I would join the Church, 
but I love to dance." That young lady says, "I 
would join the Church, but I love to dance." 
Well, young lady, go on. We will say that you 
go to 200 balls — that is a big allowance, isn't it? — 
and that you dance hundreds of sets. By and by 
you die without God and without hope, and down 
into the flames of despair you go forever; and as 
you walk the sulphurous streets of damnation you 
can tell them : " I am in hell forever, it is true, but 
I danced 400 times, I did." Now, won't that be a 
consolation ? 

That man out there says : " I want to join the 
Church, but preachers think a man ought not to 
take a dram and be a member of the Church." 
Supposing, brother, that you roll out forty barrels 
of the best Bourbon in the United States and drink 
it, every drop, and then die and go to perdition. 
You can tell them in hell : " I am in hell forever, 
it is true, but I drank forty barrels of the best 
Bourbon before I got here." That will be a con- 
solation, won't it. That's remuneration, isn't it? 

What do you want to dance for, young lady? 
Of what use is it to you ? If I had to marry a 
dozen times — and I am like the Irishman who said 
he hoped he would not live long enough to see his 
wife married again — if I had to marry a dozen 
times, I would never go to a ball-room to get my 
wife. Do you hear that? I used to dance with 
the girls, but when I wanted to marry I did not 



The Loss of the Soul. 113 

go to the ball-room to get my wife. Many a fellow 
got a good one in the ball-room, and many a fellow 
did n't. God gives a man a good wife and some- 
body else gives him a bad one. What good does 
it do you to be able to dance ? Take the best girl 
in this town after her family is reduced to a fear- 
ful crisis by her father's business reverses. Now 
they are poor and that girl must earn a living. I 
will introduce her to a dozen of the leading citizens 
of the town, and give her a worthy recommendation 
in every respect. She is just what every body would 
want as a music teacher, as a clerk, or in any other 
capacity ; but let me add as a postscript to the rec- 
ommendation, "She is a first-class dancer," and that 
will knock her out of every job she applies for in 
this world. And so with every sin. And I de- 
clare to you to-night, that the thing that keeps us 
away from God and out of the Church, that is the 
price we put on our soul. 

There is a man. He says: "I would be relig- 
ious if it were not for so and so," and I never 
think of this that I do not think of an incident in 
which a husband sat by his wife at a revival meet- 
ing. When the penitents were asked to come to 
the altar he was asked by his wife, "Come, won't 
you give yourself to God ?" He shook his head 
and went home. That night she said to her hus- 
band, "I saw you were affected. I wish you had 
given your heart to God." He said, " Wife, I can 
not be a Christian in the business I am in." She 
said: "I know that." He was a liquor dealer. 

And she added : " Husband, I want you to give up 

10 



114 Sermons and Sayings. 

your business and give your heart to God." He 
said : " Wife, I can not afford it." " Well," she said, 
"how much do you clear every year on whisky?" 
" Well," he said, " my net profits are about two 
thousand dollars a year." She asked: "Husband, 
how long do you reckon you will live to run that 
business?" "Twenty years in the natural expecta- 
tion of things." "How much is twice twenty thou- 
sand dollars?" "Forty thousand dollars." "Forty 
thousand dollars? Now, husband, if you could 
get forty thousand dollars in a lump, would you sell 
your soul to hell for that sum?" He said: "No, 
wife ! no ! I '11 close out my business in the morn- 
ing, and I will give my heart to God right now. 
I would not sell my soul for four thousand million 
dollars." O, that you all could see what keeps you 
out of the Church and from God. That is the 
price you have placed on your immortal soul. 

Now, a word in conclusion. The soul — that is 
the other thing. There is the world and here is 
the soul. Now what? My soul with its immortal 
interest; my soul that shall live forever; my soul 
that will shake off this body by and by, and lay it 
aside as a tired child does its toys ; my soul that shall 
throw this body down and fly away from it; shall 
I give my immortal soul for this world ? No, sir, 
I can not do that. What then ? I will give my 
soul to Christ. He is worthy of it; he died to 
save it. 

Yonder is a parliament. Adam has just fallen 
and subjected the whole race to death, and now the 
reverberating thunders of God's wrath are heard 



The Loss of the Soul. 115 

athwart the whole moral universe, and the announce- 
ment is made in that parliament, " Adam — man has 
fallen. The great federal head of the race has sinned 
and fallen ; " and a voice from the great I am 
spoke out, " Who will take man's redemption on 
his shoulders and bring him back to life?" I im- 
agine the archangel standing up in that presence and 
shaking his snowy wings, and saying : " This task 
is too great for me." I imagine Gabriel might 
stand up and say, "I shall blow the trumpet that 
will wake the dead, but this task is too great for 
me." But all at once there was One who stood up 
in that presence and said : " I will take man's re- 
demption on my shoulders." And the angels began 
to wonder, and it has been the cause of increasing 
wonder ever since that he should become the Re- 
deemer; that he should become man that he might 
redeem the race and be our Savior. 

Brother, you read some years ago about a ship 
in the Atlantic Ocean that sprung a leak away 
down in the bottom of her hull. The announce- 
ment that the ship has sprung a leak is made by 
the captain, and the pumps are got to work ; but 
they will not pump out the water as fast as it 
enters by the leak. The only hope for the safety 
of the vessel is that some one will risk his life in 
order to stop the leak. Volunteers were asked for, 
and one man spoke up, " I will go down and stop 
the leak." He went down and down — to the upper, 
then the lower, and then the third deck, and then 
he reached down into the water and worked there 
repairing the leak until he became perfectly ex- 



116 Sermons and Sayings. 

hausted. Then the pumps began to work, and by 
and by the old ship grew lighter, and the captain said : 
" The leak is stopped, but let us go down and see 
about our friend." They went down to the third 
deck and saw his body floating on the water. They 
brought him up and embalmed his body, and when 
land was reached they carried it ashore and buried 
it. And the spot was marked by a tombstone on 
which was the epitaph : 

" Tins man gave his life that all of us might live." 
And the names of those he saved were all engraved 
below. And they bless the memory of that man 
and say: " If he had not died we should have been 
lost." 

And yonder is the old ship Humanity, and now 
the waves of God's wrath and judgment begin to 
pitch and toss her, and drive her on the rocks, and 
she is about to go down forever, when the Son of 
God sees her, and I see him come from the shining 
shores of heaven as swift as the morning light, and 
throw his arms around this old sinking ship. She 
carries him under three days and nights, and 
he brings her to the surface on the third morning ; 
and then God grasps the stylus and signs the 
Magna Charta of man's salvation, and then at the 
blessed moment it is written : " Whosoever believeth 
in the Son of God shall not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life." I will give my life to Christ ; he gave 
his life for me, and he is worthy of it. 

Down South, before the war we used to put a 
slave on the block and sell him to the highest bid- 
der. Sometimes he would run away, and we could 



The Loss of the Soul. 117 

not get him on the block, but we would sell him on 
the run. "How much for him running away?" 
Well, brother, when God Almighty turned this 
world over to Jesus Christ, he turned it over on 
the run, running away from God, running away to 
hell and death, and the Lord Jesus Christ came as 
swift as the morning light, and overtook this old 
world in her wayward flight, threw his arms around 
her, and said : " Stop, stop, let us go back to God. 
Let us go back." 

O Jesus Christ, help every man here to-say: 
" I will go back. I have strayed long enough. I 
will go back now." Will you, brother ? God help 
every man to say : " This night I have taken my 
last step in the wrong direction, and have turned 
round." That is just what God wants sinners to 
do — to turn round — to turn round. Will you to- 
night say: " God being my helper, I will stop; 
I will turn my attention to heavenly things and 
eternal things; I will look after my soul, if I starve 
to death?" Will you do that ? 



Sermon VI. 

CORNELIUS, A. DEVOUT MAN. 

There was a certain man in Cesarea, called Cornelius, a 
centurion of the band called the Italjan band, a devout man, 
and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much 
alms to the people and prayed to God always. — Acts x, 1, 2. 

THE first century of the Christian era produced 
some of the most remarkable characters of this 
world's history, and one of them was this heathen 
man, Cornelius. His character was remarkable in 
that it was symmetrical. It was well rounded. It 
presented a perfect whole. A perfectly educated 
will is one which says to the Divine Will, " Thou 
orderest, I will." " Thou commandest not, I will 
not." In other words, a perfectly educated will is 
a will in perfect harmony with the will of God. 
We Christian people have a great deal to say about 
crosses and sacrifices and losses. You know what a 
cross is ? Now, I will tell you where the Christian 
finds his cross — when God's will is one way and his 
will another. Now, there 's your cross. But when 
you whip your will around into a parallel line with 
the will ot God — now the cross is all gone — and you 
say : " The joy of my heart is to do the will of God." 
Delight yourselves in the will of the Lord and he 
will give you your desires, because your will is in 
perfect harmony with the will of God. 

Character is but the soul, in all its phases, in 
118 



Cornelius, a Devout Man. 119 

perfect harmony with the will of God. Religion is 
loyalty to God. Religion puts me in harmony with 
the will of God, so that whenever the chords of my 
heart are touched by the Divine fingers, there is 
music that would charm an angel's ear. When I 
visit the sick I get the sweetest music of earth from 
my being, and every thing in me is set in perfect 
harmony with the will of God. Character is the 
result of the harmony of forces. There is a world 
of beauty in harmony. I once sat in the parlor of 
a friend's house, and his oldest daughter sat at the 
piano running her fingers over the keys. To the 
right of her stood her brother putting a banjo in 
perfect tune with the chords of the piano. To the 
left was a sister with a guitar, and near by was an- 
other brother tuning a violin. All these instru- 
ments were put in perfect harmony with the chords 
of the piano, and when all commenced to play to- 
gether, there was music that would have charmed 
the heavenly hosts. When a man is in harmony 
with every thing, if he is in harmony with God's 
will, he loves all that God loves, and hates all that 
God hates; and if he is not in harmony with God's 
will, he is out of harmony with all that God loves, 
and in harmony with all that God hates. If you 
are in harmony with God's will, you will love every 
thing God loves, and hate every thing that God 
hates. You love the right and hate the wrong, and 
you are godlike in character. 

Cornelius's character, as I said a moment ago, 
was wonderful and striking in that it was symmet- 
rical, and now, to-day, I propose to present this 



120 Sermons and Sayings. 

portrait of this heathen man to this congregation. 
It is the Scriptural portrait of this man, and when 
I look at it and then take my eyes away for a mo- 
ment, I am ashamed of myself and of every man 
on the face of the earth. I am, for I tell you after 
the blessings of 1,900 years of Christ and all that 
accrues by reason of God's goodness to the race, as 
it marches on, this world does not present, in the 
noontide blaze of the nineteenth century privileges, 
such a character as this heathen man Cornelius. 
" Cornelius, a devout man/' — that is the first thing 
that God tells us about this man. He was a devout 
man. This term devout is a very significant one. 
It is a broad term. We have various adjectives and 
epithets by which we describe men. Sometimes we 
say he is a zealous man. Sometimes we say he is 
an earnest man. Sometimes we say he is an intel- 
lectual man. Sometimes we say he is a very humble 
man. Sometimes that he is very prayerful. Some- 
times we say he is a very generous man, a forgiving 
man ; but when inspiration tell us Cornelius was a 
devout man, it covers the whole ground in one word, 
and says that he was noble, and generous, and true, 
and all that makes the character of the Lord Jesus 
Christ lovely in the sight of man — a well rounded 
character. Cornelius was a devout man, or, in other 
words, a thoroughly religious man. I do n't care 
where he lives, whether in Europe, Asia, or Africa, 
such a man is worth his weight in gold in any com- 
munity. 

What a man does is the test of what a man is. I 
frequently ask, What is Mr. So-and-so worth ? And 



Cornelius, a Devout Man. 121 

some man with only the statistics of the tax-books 
before him, says he is worth three hundred thou- 
sand dollars. That is the only way you can tell 
what a man is worth — by going to the tax-books — 
and then, generally, you can multiply that by five 
before you reach it. I ask what another man is 
worth, and they go to the same source, and say he 
is worth ten thousand dollars. Here is one who, 
according to the tax-books, is worth ten thousand 
dollars, and another who is worth three hundred 
thousand dollars; but measured, according to God's 
rule, that man who is worth ten thousand dollars is 
worth a thousand times more to God and humanity 
than the other. After all, it is not how much a 
man is worth, but what sort of a fellow has got it. 
I have found that out. A man who is not relig- 
ious in every thing is not religious in any thing, 
for religion is eternal, uncompromising loyalty to 
God and the right. A man who is religious at all, 
is religious everywhere and in every thing. That 
is it. That old adage — -it has grown to be an 
adage — "religion is religion and business is busi- 
ness/' enters practically into the life of the Church, 
and culminates in an expression like this: "I don't 
believe in mixing politics and religion," and it is 
always uttered by the man who has no religion to 
mix with his politics. He who has no religion to 
mix with his politics is a demagogue and a trick- 
ster. I would not mix a drop of politics with my 
religion for all the world, but I want all the relig- 
ion I have to go into my politics. It helps it. 

Cornelius was a thoroughlv religious man. There 

11 



122 Sebmons and Sayings. 

was a moment in his past when the question was 
settled once and forever between his soul and its 
God. " By the grace of God I will be religious." 
Until a man reaches this final decision there is 
nothing in all the means of grace that can ever 
make him a religious man. My theology is summed 
up in three lines. God can not arbitrarily make 
a man good, nor can the devil arbitrarily make 
him bad. If you want to be good, God stands 
pledged to help you by all the means of his omnipo- 
tence. If you want to be bad the devil w T ill help 
you. The last remark was unnecessary. There 
are so many living witnesses here to-day who will 
testify to the truth of it. The man w 7 ho says : " I 
will be religious," wakes up heaven and hell with 
a single utterance, and God will roll an unfinished 
world aside to help such a man. 

Now, brethren, I settled the question once, and 
forever. I will be religious. Then, I want to tell 
you, it is astonishing how the mountains will melt 
down, and the valleys will fill up, and how God 
himself will not only stand at the other end of the 
line, but will walk back down the line and tell me 
to take his arm, and walk and talk with me clear 
home to heaven — an earnest man, a man that means 
business. Well, now, suppose I decide : " I do n't 
know about this question. If I can be religious, 
and be something else, too, all right ; but I do n't 
like this single-handed business." Well, now, I want 
to say this much. You have got to make a choice 
if you are ever religious. 

My wife has given her life to me and to my 



Cornelius, a Devout Man. 123 

children, and I say here to-day, if I could leave my 
precious wife above want I would do it, but I 
wouldn't, as a matter of choice, leave a child of 
mine a dollar in the world. You think I don't 
know what I am talking about now. If I were 
going to hunt the worst thing that was ever per- 
petrated, do you know I wouldn't go to hell, and 
I wouldn't go to heaven to hunt it? I would just 
came to this city and get one of your debauched, 
drunken sons-in-law. My Lord ! hell itself can 't 
beat that. Some of you know how it is, do n't you? 
Isn't it awful? Your precious Mary married to a 
brutal, drunken husband ! And she lives consciously 
every moment, embraced in the arms of a drunken 
wretch, and every child that God gives her is half- 
drunkard the day it is born. My God ! can any 
thing be worse than that? And God Almighty 
says he has got something against your whole com- 
munity when he lets the devil put that sort off on 
you. Did you ever notice that? If a fellow is 
worth about $200,000, it is astonishing how the 
devil can run in drunken sons-in-law on him. You 
had better look out, old fellow. That 's the hand 
of Heaven, and there 's truth in what I am saying. 
No, sir, if success means success in this world and 
success is business, it may mean permanent, eternal 
failure and bankruptcy, for I dare assert it is true 
of many rich men that have sunk down to hell. 
They could not go into joint copartnership in hell 
to-day and buy with all their millions a drop of 
water to cool their parched tongues. And you tell 
me that is success! No, sir, give him success, but 



124 Sermons and Sayings. 

I take religion, and then when the last hour shall 
come, if I die at the rich man's gate with the dogs 
for my doctors, to lick my sores, I will be lifted out 
of a pauper's body into Abraham's bosom to live 
forever and ever with God. Let me be a Christian, 
poor or rich, high or low. Let me be loyal to God, 
living right and doing right — " a devout man," a 
religious man. I like that sort of men. I like a 
man that is religious every time you meet him, and 
religious everywhere he goes, and religious in every 
thing he does. 

I never had much confidence in a man that 
would do things when he goes to New York that 
he would n't do here at home. You have some of 
that sort here. A fellow that's sober as a judge at 
home, when he goes on a fishing tour can not get 
along without a keg of whisky ; and he drinks it 
all the way along, and claims to be pious. And that 
is n't all. You not only take it along, and that's 
wrong in itself, but there are not half of you that 
take it who do not lie about it afterwards. That 's 
one thing about sin. It not only makes a fool out of 
you, but makes a rascal out of you at every crack. 
That 's as true as that the sun shines. I never have 
seen but one man in America that would stand up 
and say he drank whisky and never told his wife a 
lie about it. Have you got one Here to-day? Is 
there a man here who drinks whisky who never 
told his wife a lie about it? If there is, stand up 
here % I want to see you. I expect some of you 
would have stood up but your wives are with you 
and you do n't want to be caught in a lie. 



Coknelius, a Devout Man. 125 

" A devout man," That means a religious man ; 
religious everywhere under all circumstances. That 's 
the sense of this text: " Cornelius, a devout man." 
Thoroughly religious. When a pastor has that 
class of members in his Church he can bank on them, 
and everywhere. He know 7 s just as w^ell where to 
go and what to ask for as he knows his name. 
Good Lord, fill every Church in this city with 
thoroughly religious people, and then w 7 e will take 
this country for God. " Cornelius, a devout man." 
Now listen : " And " — you notice that copulative 
conjunction in there — " and feared God, with all 
his house." Do you notice that when we talk about 
people we never use the copulative conjunction? 
We use the disjunctive " but," Did you ever notice 
that ? You ask about Brother A, and the answer is, 
" Well, he 's good, but he does n't pray in his 
family." " Well," you say, " how about Brother 
B ? " " Well, he 's a good man, a very good man, 
but he seems to like his dram." You ask, " How 
about Brother C?" " Well, he's a mighty nice, 
good man, but he does n't pray in his family and 
does n't always come to Church." Well, you ask 
again about So-and-so, and you are told, "he's a 
mighty good man, but he '11 just knock you down 
in a minute if you bother him." 

When you have gone all round, w r henever you 
have asked about any body, they do n't talk more 
than two minutes before they begin to use this con- 
junctive. They say, " He 's so and so, but he 's 
also so and so." You can take this disjunctive con- 
junction "but" and chip character all to pieces 



126 Sermons and Sayings. 

with it in a minute. Now, God tells us Cornelius 
was a devout man, and — do n't you see? — "and." 
I like that "and." You can just take any fellow 
in this town and say all about him. " He 's good 
and kind." Then you commence to "but" him, 
and the first thing you know you butt him off the 
bridge, and that's the last of him. Lord have 
mercy upon us. Is the world a multitude of gossipers 
and slanderers, or is it a fact that nobody can say three 
good words about us without telling something 
mean about us? Is that so ? People say, " She 's 
a pretty good woman, but if she gets mad with you 
she will never make it up ; " or, they say, " She 's 
a right good neighbor, but she wants you to pay 
back every thing you borrow ;" or, " She 's a mighty 
good wife, but I tell you if her husband does n't 
do to suit her she will give him brimstone." I 
mean those Georgia women, of course. That kind 
of thing has never occurred here in this city. I 
know you women just show in your faces that you 
are like angels. You look as if all you needed was a 
pair of wings, and you would go to glory without 
any further ceremony. It does tickle me just to 
see you women put on an air of injured innocence. 
" You know I 'm just as innocent as can be. I 
never quarreled with my husband in my life, and 
I never said a cross word to one of my children." 
Sister, if you have n't done this, I will get you a 
pair of wings before night and start you on to glory. 
" A devout man, and one that feared God with all 
his house." Now, listen. When Cornelius got relig- 
ion, he got it all over ; or, if you like the expression 



Coknelius, a Devout Man. 127 

better, it got him all over from head to foot. That 
is the first thing that happened to him, and he 
then feared God with all his house. Then the wife 
was religious and all the household were religious. 
And, I tell you the grandest sight angels ever look 
on in this world, is a father who takes the wife by 
the hand, and the wife leads the eldest child by 
the hand, and the eldest child the next, and so on, 
and to see that father and mother just leading 
their children right into the pearly gates for ever 
and ever — the whole family housed in heaven — 
that is a grand sight on earth and it is a grander 
sight in heaven. 

But I tell you the saddest sight that God's eyes 
ever looked on — and he has seen the whole Missis- 
sippi Valley blighted with death and yellow fever; 
he has seen whole provinces of China starved to 
death ; he has seen the flood of war covering almost 
half of the world — the saddest sights God's eyes ever 
looked on, is a father who takes the wife by the 
hand, and the wife who takes the eldest child by 
the hand, and both leading them to the brink of 
the river of death, until at last father, mother, and 
children all leap into the river that is lined from 
source to mouth with human wretches floating on 
to death and hell. There are hundreds of such 
families in this city going to hell — father, mother, 
and children, the whole group, hand in hand, and 
arm in arm. Is it yours? Is it yours? Is it 
yours, sir? If there is a deeper, darker place in 
perdition than all others, it seems to be for the hus- 
band and father, who willingly and deliberately 



128 Sermons and Sayings. 

turns his back on God, and grasping his family, 
leads them down to hell. And I want to tell 
you men in this town, if there is a man who 
has a good Christian wife, a praying, earnest 
Christian woman, and that mother is doing all she 
can to save her children, and the father is doing all 
he can to undo the mother's work and prayers ; 
who, when his wife prays, sneers, and w 7 hen the 
wife strives to lead the children to God strives to 
lead them away by his example ; that if there is a 
more intolerable hell for any one, it is for that man 
who tries to undo the work of a Christian wife, and 
in spite of her prayers and tears, drags her children 
down to hell. And that's you, sir; and that's 
you, sir; and that 's you, sir. O it were better for you 
that you never had been born, than to curse the 
life of a good wife, and damn the children of a good 
mother. If I have any thing special in reference 
to my wife and children to be grateful for, it is 
this: I have no living child that ever looked 
into my face when I was not a consecrated Chris- 
tian man. God gave us one w^hen I was wrecked 
and wayward and godless. That little child lived 
and looked in my face w^hen I was godless and 
profane and wretched, and God took her to heaven ; 
and I have often wished that Bickersteth had told 
the truth when he said — and if it be true it is the 
sweetest thing poet ever said — "A babe in heaven 
is a babe forever." And I have thought of that 
lovely one there, with my mind made up, I shall 
live a Christian as long as God gives me a child to 
look in my face, and when I get to heaven I will 



Coexelius, a Devout Max. 129 

fall down and beg pardon of that sweet little angel 
that she ever saw me when I was n ; t a Christian. 

Now this riffraff, these low-down scoundrels 
round this town that have no wife or children, they 
may, in a sense, afford to swear, and drink, and sin; 
but when a father sins he sins with a vengeance, be- 
cause every wicked act of his life is an impediment 
in the way of his children, that God himself must 
pull them over before they can ever get to God and 
glory. 

"A devout man, and one that feared God with 
all his house." No, sir; if you ask me which I would 
rather see, all my family religious, or enjoy the in- 
heritance of a Vanderbilt, I will say I had rather 
see one of my sweet children converted to God than 
to be presented with a hundred million dollars. 
The Atlanta Constitution, the other day, had a notice 
of a note to the editor of the Asheville (North Car- 
olina) Times, in which a man wanted to get the ad- 
dress of Sam Jones, with an intimation that some 
man out there had died and left him a large legacy. 
Well, that item went the rounds and this person saw 
it and the people got excited about it, and came to 
me and asked if I had seen it. I told them, yes, I 
saw it; and they said, "Are you going to send on 
your papers and your proofs?" Said I, "No." 
"Why?" was asked. "Well, in the first place, I 
don't know but what it is some trap; and in the 
second place, I am getting along so well without a 
legacy that I think I will just keep on this way. 
I am doing swimmingly without one, and God only 
knows what would happen to me if I had one. So 



130 Sermons and Sayings. 

I ' ve gotten along first-rate, do n't you see ?" Ninety- 
nine, I had like to have said — and I think it is 
true — ninety-nine cases in a hundred, where you 
leave your children $20,000 apiece, without the 
heritage of a good name or a Christian character to 
go with it, you are leaving them enough to buy a 
through ticket to hell; and they will invest in it, 
and check their baggage through, and never stop 
until into hell they go. That's the truth. 

" Yes/' you say, " Jones is preaching commun- 
ism." I am not. I tell you to-day, there isn't a 
man in this country that fights communism stronger 
than I do. I have no sympathy with this low- 
down rack of God's creation going round doing 
nothing and wanting every thing that every body 
else has ; and I have no sympathy with the fellow 
that has got a big pile of it and won't give any 
away. That's the way I feel about it. I have 
found out that money is like a walking-stick. One 
will help you along if you are lame, but fifty loaded 
on your back will break you down. That 's so, and 
the matter with some of you people is that you are 
loaded down with money. Money is like guano ; 
if you put it on too thick it will burn up every 
thing. And so money, if you load on too heavily, 
will spoil a man. The richest man the world ever 
saw was also one of the best. Abraham could have 
bought out Vanderbilt and scarcely have missed 
the money he checked out of the bank to pay for 
Vanderbilt's estate, and yet he was one of the best 
men on earth. It is not so much the money as the 
sort of fellow that has it. That 's it. 



Cornelius, a Devout Man. 131 

" Feared God with all his house." Now, brother, 
if there is a sight that charms my soul it is a family 
devoted to God — father, mother, and children, all 
in love and harmony with God. What a grand 
sight that is! I have been trying to finish a little 
cottage home at my house for several weeks, for my 
wife and children, and I told my wife the other 
day: "When the last nail is driven and the work 
is complete, we will get our friends together, and 
we will dedicate this house to God." Said I : 
" Wife, it will do our children good to know that 
they sleep in God's house ; that they eat in God's 
house ; and that every thing they do here is in God's 
house. Let us tell them : ' Children, your mother 
and father have given this house to God ; we are 
God's children ; we are your elder brothers and 
sisters. We are all children of God. Let us help 
each other to be good and to do right.' Then I 
said : " Wife, nobody will ever ask us to play cards 
here. They would no more play cards in this house 
than if it were a church. And nobody will ask us 
to let them dance balls here ; nobody will want to 
dance in God's house. And nobody will ask us to 
give wine suppers here. This is God's house. Let 
us protect our home and protect our children by 
giving our house to God." She said : " It 's a 
bargain." And so I have a house for my children 
that is God's house, in which to raise them, as if 
they were my little brothers and sisters and children 
of God. 

Let me tell you, if every house in this city were 
dedicated to God this afternoon, at three o'clock, 



132 Sekmons and Sayings. 

there would be some moving out, would n't there? 
My ! my ! Old Brother and Sister Euchre, old 
Brother and Sister Progressive Euchre would have 
to rack out, would n't they ? And I reckon when 
you get backed up into heaven, for you never will 
get there unless God backs you there, as you are 
headed from it now — and God will have to turn 
you round or back you into glory, one or the 
other — I reckon if one of your sort were to get in 
there at last, to your astonishment, you would hear 
it said, " There come old Brother and Sister Euchre. 
Here they are !" And it would be the biggest 
wonder in heaven when the angels of God see old 
Brother and Sister Euchre dropping in. And then 
there's old Sister and Brother Demijohn, and old 
Brother Ballroom and Sister Ballroom. Whenever 
you dedicate your house to God the first thing you 
will have to do is to wash the deviPs fleas off you. 
You can get the fleas of the flesh off with es- 
sence of peppermint, but it takes essence of damna- 
tion to do any thing with these moral fleas. 

O for a house dedicated to God, a home dedi- 
cated to God, where the mother lives in the atmos- 
phere of prayer, where the children are brought up 
under the most sacred influences that either heaven 
or earth know any thing of. I tell you, brethren, 
if there is a spot on earth of which it can be said 
truthfully, that angels encamp round about it, it 
must be the home that is devoutly consecrated to 
God, with a good father and good mother and 
all the children consecrated to God. Don't you 
like that? 



Cornelius, a Devout Max. 133 

" Feared God, with all his house. " Now, you 
see, Cornelius got religion himself, and the first thing 
you know it broke out all over his family; and now 
I tell you that there 's a varioloid type of it that 
is n't catching. You know that, for there is n't one 
of your children that caught it, sister. The vario- 
loid type — nobody knows you had it. They just 
put you in bed a day or two and you were out be- 
fore any body found out you were sick. The vario- 
loid type of piety has taken possession of this coun- 
try, but it is n't catching. But you get one of the 
old-fashioned, confluent cases of small-pox, and every 
body will catch it that goes into the room. This 
varioloid type of religion that you see nowadays 
isn't catching, but you take an old-fashioned case, 
and when a man has got it, the first thing you know 
his wife will get it, and it will break out over the 
family, and the whole family will be consecrated to 
God/ 

You hear people say that minister's children are 
worse than any body else's children. I say that's a 
great big lie. There is n't a word of truth in it. I 
want to tell you what my observation teaches me, 
that the minister's children are better than any body 
else's children. I know men in Georgia to-day, 
raised by Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and 
Christian ministers that any man in this city would 
be glad to call father. I do n't go much on the 
preacher who has n't got a religious family, though 
there are circumstances that we ought to weigh 
mighty closely. I am afraid he has n't got religion 
himself unless it has taken possession of his 



134 Sermons and Sayings. 

household. I know one thing, one of the best 
preachers in our State has the worst children, but 
that is because the combined influences of city life 
and the evils which are centered there have tempted 
and carried off his boys. And I know another 
thing; if I turn loose a godless child into this 
world, when I come to die you can go to my tomb- 
stone and chip in large letters: "Here lies the 
most arrant hypocrite this world ever saw." If you 
have got religion right, the first thing you know 
your whole crowd will get it. That is my doc- 
trine. 

" Feared God, with all his house." Brother, the 
darkest, gloomiest spot on earth is the home where 
there is no Christ and no piety and no prayer. A 
prayerless house is the home of the devil, and his 
children live there. Well, now, what else? First, 
he got it himself; and, secondly, it took all over his 
household, until wife and children and servants, all 
were religious. Then what came? " He gave much 
alms to the poor." See how the thing spreads — how 
it grows out and develops, and takes hold of all the 
land. I like a liberal fellow. I will tell you this: 
What a man gives is a test of what a man is. You 
take a man in the Church that is stingy; there isn't 
a preacher in this crowd that has any hope at all for 
him, or any patience with him. If I had charge of 
some Churches in this world, filled up with low- 
flung, stingy members, that were as stingy as some 
of them are, I would have no faith at all that I 
could accomplish any thing, and I would be afraid 
the devil would get the last one of them, and I 



Cornelius, a Devout Man. 135 



would have to pray mightily to keep from being glad 
that he did. You know a man is in a pretty close 
place when he has to pray that we^y. Have you 
ever been that way, brother? If you have 11% then 
you do n't know some of the close places I have 
been in. I had one of that sort of members once 
send his wife for me when he was sick. He wanted 
to see me, as he was about to die. I went there, 
and he wanted me to pray for him. I said: " Pray 
for you?" "Yes/ 5 he said. I said, "What for?" 
He said he wished me to pray that he might get 
well again. Said I : " I can 't do that, brother." 
He asked why. I told him : " I try to be honest 
when on my knees, and if I were to get on my knees 
and pray God to let you live, and he were to ask 
me what I wanted you to live for, I could n't tell 
to save my life. I do n't know what I want you to 
live for. You won't pray, and yon won't do any 
thing else. What would I tell God I wanted you 
to live for?" I staid there a few minutes, and when 
I got up to leave he said : " Do you need any corn ?" 
I told him I needed a load or so, or could use it, 
and said he: "I'll send you a load down." And 
he did, and I do n't know whether any body else 
made any thing or not, but I got a big load of corn 
out of that man. Brethren, there 's many a man in 
this city that, if an honest preacher were to be asked 
to sit down and pray for God to let him live, the 
preacher couldn't honestly do it. What do you 
want him to live for? He does no good in the 
Church ; he won't pay, he won't pray, he won't do 
any thing. 



136 Sermons and Sayings. 

The other day I picked up the Atlanta Consti- 
tution, and I saw an item concerning a Georgia man 
who was dangerously ill in New York. My heart 
leaped up as I saw it, and I said : " Lord God, 

do n't let die. We can 't get along without 

him in Georgia. There is no good work going on 
that he is not up to his elbows in it. Lord, do n't 
let him die." The next telegram I read he was 
getting better, and he got well and is now back in 
Atlanta. 

I would n't pray for that first fellow, I could n't ; 

but just as soon as I saw that was ill I was 

praying for him. He is only twenty-eight or thirty 
years old, a merchant in Atlanta, a first-class fellow. 
There is but one trouble with him, and that is his 
stinginess. Why, sir, he is worth §20,000 and only 
gives 81,500 a year out of it for God and religion! 
I mean he is worth $20,000. and we can 't get more 
than SI, 500 a year out of him. One of your 'pos- 
sum-eared fellows, is n't he ? If I were to bring 
him up here and set him down beside you fellows 
he would scare you to death. Why, we were tak- 
ing up a foreign missionary collection and this man 
stood up and said to the pastor : " I gave last year 
the best sister boy ever had to the foreign mission- 
ary field. This year I '11 give you $500 for foreign 
missions." O, my good Lord, give us some of that 
sort here. Give us one of that sort, to wake up the 
old fogies; just to show them what a fellow can be, 
you know. 

Good Lord, help us to see that heaven is all • 
around us here. I can stand right where I am 



Cornelius, a Devout Man. 137 

and throw a rock into the middle of heaven. It is 
all about us. You say you will go to heaven when 
you die. Lord bless you, if you do n't get to 
heaven a few times before you die, you will never 
get there after you die. There are some preachers 
in this country who spend about one-third of their 
life on heavenly recognition — preaching heavenly 
recognition. Well, you will never catch me on 
that lay — heavenly recognition. I am like that old 
preacher in our State who said he did n't study 
about heavenly recognition. He said : " What I 
want is earthly recognition. Brothers, please rec- 
ognize me down here ; help me along down here. 
I am in a heap of trouble, and what I need is 
earthly recognition. When I get to heaven, and 
get a crown upon my head, and a harp in my hand, 
and sit down under the shade of the tree of life, I 
won't want recognition then, because I will be 
already elected for all time to come." I like that, 
and I like a generous man — a man that never has 
a dollar that is too good for God and the right. 
You have some generous people here. Thank God 
for every one you have got. 

12 



Sermon VII. 

ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD. 

" And we know that all things work together for good to 
them that love God, to them who are the called according to 
his purpose. — Rom. viii, 28. 

WE can say there is but one single exception in 
all the universe to the truth of this utter- 
ance, and God makes that exception all through his 
book. Every thing in this universe, except sin, 
works for the good of those that love God. There 
is nothing in sin, or of sin, or about sin, or around sin, 
or above it, or beneath it, or connected with it in any 
way, that can ever work for any body's good. What 
you have done that is wrong, what you ought to 
have done that you did not do, God can never make 
work for your good. If you have staid away 
from a prayer-meeting, God can never make that 
work for your good. If you have neglected your 
duty, God can never make that neglect work for 
your good. There is no provision of grace to make 
up for any body what he has lost from the neglect 
of duty. 

Now recollect, if you are a Christian and love 
God, every thing you can not help, every thing you 
would have warded off if you could, every thing you 
would have conquered if you could, every thing in 
this life, except sin, works for good; and God him- 
self can not make sin work for any body's good, be- 
138 



Working for Good. 139 

cause sin is the reversal, the throwing out of gear 
the machinery of our nature. When we begin to 
go wrong we reverse the machinery of our nature 
and run it backwards. You can no more work for 
God when you reverse the machinery of your nature 
than you can make your sewing-machine sew when 
you run it backwards. One is as impossible as the 
other. All things work for good when you are run- 
ning in harmony with God and in a line with God; 
for, after all, religion is nothing more than harmony 
with God. When you walk up to your piano, and 
touch a key in that elegant instrument, and that key 
is out of tune, and out of harmony, it is out of har- 
mony, not only with the rest of the keys of the 
piano, but it is out of harmony with every thing 
in the universe that is in harmony. But w r hen the 
piano-tuner walks up to that piano and opens it, 
and takes out his instruments and works away at 
that particular string until he gets it in harmony, 
then that key is in harmony with every thing in the 
universe. And religion is getting in harmony with 
God. Then every thing moves along harmon- 
iously, adjusting and setting the Ten Command- 
ments to music. Is it not so ? When God bids 
me do this or that he touches a chord in my na- 
ture in sympathy with his own divine heart, and 
then we are in harmony with all. God wills and 
wishes it, and he will make every thing in this 
universe conduce to our present and eternal happi- 
ness. 

" And we know that all things work together 
for good to them that love God." There is the text. 



140 Sermons and Sayings. 

There are three classes of people here this afternoon, 
and these three classes represent the whole world. 
The first class we mention are those that know they 
love God. Thank God, there are such persons on 
the face of the earth, persons who know they do 
love God. There is another class here, and those 
in that class do not love God ; and about nine-tenths 
of us make up the third class, persons who do not 
know whether they love God or not. Sometimes 
they think they love him. Sometimes they think 
they do not. Nine-tenths of the world are made 
up of do n't-know-what-to-thinks. O, how numerous 
they are ! But what is the use of going on in that 
way ? If I were a ten-year-old boy and you asked 
me, " Do you love your mother ?" I should reply : 
"Yes, sir, I do." "How do you know?" "Be- 
cause when I do what mother says for me to do I 
feel good about it, and when I do something mother 
told me not to do, I feel bad about it." " Well, 
what other reason ?" " I love her, and I love to hear 
her name reverently and kindly used." " Well, 
what other reason ?" " It makes me feel bad for 
any one to speak unkindly and irreverently of my 
mother." Now you ask me, " Are you a Christian?" 
"Yes." "Do you love God?" "Yes." "How 
do you know you do ?" " Because when I do what 
God tells me I feel good about it." " How else do 
you know it ?" " Because when I do something he 
told me not to do, I feel as bad about it as I can." 
"How else do you know it?" "It does me good 
to hear people praise God and speak reverently of 
him, and it gives me a horror to hear any one bias- 



Working foe Good. 141 

pheme him." I have as many reasons why I love 
God as I had why I loved my mother. 

The love of God is not necessarily an emotional 
feeling. I hear people talk a heap about feeling 
that they love God. I never stop to see whether I 
have feelings or not, I never inquire about that. 
Some people say they never want to do any thing 
unless they feel like it. I have seen preachers that 
are always gadding about, and are extremely anx- 
ious that all the members of their congregation shall 
be visited. Then there are preachers whose minds 
and hearts are in their Church, and they would 
rather be whipped than go and see any body. This 
brother deserves a thousand times more credit than 
Brother Gadabout, If pastoral visiting would have 
saved this town, it would have been saved long ago. 
God never said that people should be saved by pas- 
toral visiting. He said that the Gospel is the power 
of God unto salvation. And I have a great deal 
more respect for the brother who would rather talk 
and preach the Gospel than go and see any body 
than I have for the brother who would rather be 
running around all the time. I tell you how I feel 
about it, I do not care whether a minister ever 
puts a foot in my house all the year round or not ; 
but I will say one thing : When my wife and chil- 
dren visit my pastor I want him to preach enough 
solid truth to keep them going the whole week, 
instead of running and gadding about, and getting 
in my wife's way, and keeping things disarranged 
all the week while she is looking for the preacher. 

I want my preacher to let my family visit him 



142 Sermons and Sayings. 

at the house of God. I never saw people that 
quarreled about the pastor not visiting them that 
amounted to much, anyhow. If you treat a preacher 
right, and give him a good, square meal every time 
he calls, he hasn't any more sense than to come 
back again. If a preacher does n't come to see you 
it is your fault. Isn't that so, brother? Christ 
told his disciples when they went to a place, to go 
to one house and put up there, and not to be run- 
ning about all over creation. He knew what he 
was talking about. But if I could not preach much 
I would make it up in visiting. What I lost in 
dancing I would make up in turning round. You 
quit bothering your preacher about coming to see 
you and help him in his work! If he has one 
thousand members in his Church you make your- 
self useful and help him to look after the other nine 
hundred and ninety-nine. I used to have some 
members of my Church everlastingly at me to visit 
them. One family bothered me more than any of 
the others, and when I did make a call I made it 
a jumping, bouncing class-meeting, and they never 
bothered me any more. If some of you pastors 
would do the same you would not be bothered as 
much as you are. 

Now I branched off from the subject I was dis- 
cussing. I say whether we feel like it or not, let 
us say: "I am going to do what I consider is right." 
I am not inquiring this afternoon whether there is 
an emotional feeling toward God in my heart. 
What has Jesus Christ said? " Hereby ye know 
that ye love me because ye feel that ye do so ?" 



Working for Good. 143 

No, he never said that; he said: "Hereby ye may 
know that ye love me because ye keep my com- 
mandments." God, love, and loyalty are synony- 
mous in this sense. Loyalty to the right — absolute 
eschewing of the wrong — is proof to them that love 
God that they do love him. 

Our text might read this way : " All things 
work together for good to them that keep the com- 
mandments of God." That is about the practical 
meaning of it. Well, now T , if I am loyal to God 
straight out through and through, then the promise 
is : "All things shall work together for good." 
Well, I might stop here, but I wonder what that 
word "good" means. Suppose we give it this 
interpretation : "AH things shall work together for 
the riches of God's people." Temporal riches — 
temporal prosperity ? Why, if it had read that way 
there would not have been a word of truth in it, be- 
cause, generally speaking, God's people are poor 
people. 

Most people can not stand prosperity. Now, if 
you are going to be rich and religious both at the 
same time and place, all right, and if ever you get 
to heaven you will wear a bright crown there; no 
doubt about that. But I will say one thing to you, 
you had better look out along that line. Some folks 
think I have some spite against rich folks, like all 
poor white trash, but I have no spite against any 
body. If there is any body good to me it is the 
rich. If there is any body kind to me it is the 
rich. I think so much of the rich people of this 
country that I shall not let the devil get them if I 



144 Sermons and Sayings. 

can help it, and I am going to talk to them when I 
feel like it. How many genuinely Scriptural pious 
rich women do you know in town ? I do not 
mean, how many belong to the Church? I know 
the Church will get them in, and it's glad to get 
them, religion or no religion. I ain't talking about 
that. How many genuinely Scriptural, devoted, 
pious rich women have you got in your city ? How 
many pure, noble, consecrated, self-sacrificing, pious 
men who are millionaires have you got in your 
city ? Xow, I never said there were not any. I 
never said how many. I ask you, how many? 

Prosperity! God never said: "All things 
shall work together for the prosperity of God's 
people." They could not stand it. Some folks 
could not go to heaven out of a three-story house. 
That 's a fact. I do not say I am one of those who 
could. I never tried it and never will, I reckon. 
Prosperity — I do not want any thing to come be- 
tween me and my loyalty to God. I like Agur's 
prayer: "Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed 
me with food convenient for me ; lest I be full and 
deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be 
poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in 
vain." The medium is best. Let me have " suffi- 
cient unto the day/' with the blessed assurance that 
I shall dwell in the land and shall be fed. 

God never said: "All things shall work 
together for the health of God's people. " I 
think some of the most afflicted people I ever 
met in this life have been the best, and I think 
sometimes most of us would get along better if we 



Working for Good. 145 

were sick more. Take an ordinary Methodist, now 
a backslider, and strike him down with a six weeks' 
spell of typhoid fever, and you can do more to get 
him better spiritually than by preaching 500,000 
sermons. Shake a sinner over a coffin and turn 
him loose, and he will hit the ground running every 
time. David said, "It was good for me that I was 
afflicted." It is a mighty hard matter to keep a 
big, fat, sleek Church member straight ; but get him 
down for a day to where he is pretty near to death 
and eternity and it has a good effect. It is whole- 
some. 

It is said of Jenny Lind that when Goldsmith 
first heard her sing, as he walked out of the opera 
house, somebody said, " Goldsmith, how did you 
like her singing?" He said, "Well, there was a 
harshness about her voice that needs toning down. 
If I could marry that woman, break her heart and 
crush her feelings, then she could sing." And it is 
said that afterwards when he did marry her and 
broke her heart and crushed her feelings, Jenny 
Lind sang with the sweetest voice ever listened to ; 
so sweet that the angels of God would almost rush to 
the parapets of heaven to catch the strains. Some- 
times violets send forth their sweetest odors when 
crushed beneath the foot. Some of the most religious 
people have been the most deeply afflicted ; and 
if there is one prayer I have prayed from the depths 
of my heart it is, " Lord, if I am to save my soul 
at any cost; if I am to lie on a bed of pain for 
thirty years, if that is necessary, let me begin now, 

and suffer till I draw my last breath, rather than 

13 



146 Sermons and Sayings. 

to be joyous and healthy in this life and then 
enter into the other world and into a life of inter- 
minable suffering. Lord, whatever is necessary to 
save my soul let it come on me. Save my soul, 
good Lord, at any cost to me." That is the way 
w r e ought to pray. I used to think when I first 
became religious that if I got sick or my wife got 
sick, rt That 's a sign God does n't love me." But 
now I know that God loves me with all his great 
heart. 

Then he did not say : " All things shall work 
together for the honor of God's people, for the 
popularity of God's people." I tell you, sometimes 
if you do your whole duty you will be very unpop- 
ular. Did you ever notice that if you want to 
be popular in society you must not be much of a 
Christian ? You must, of course, belong to the 
Church, and you must agree with every body. 
Do n't disagree with any thing. If you visit the 
house of a friend, and they have cards, do n't say a 
word against them, but say : " Some people object 
to them, but I don't see any harm in them." O 
how much of that sort of nonsense there is in the 
Church! And if they have dancing, tell them, 
" Our preachers do n't like it ; but to save my soul 
I have never seen any harm in it." And if they 
-want to go to the theater, tell them, " Yes, I was a 
young girl once myself, and I used to go to the 
theater." When the apostles preached the truth, it 
is said but one of them died a natural death. 
Those that loved to preach the truth languished to 
death in dungeons, or w 7 ere burned at the stake, or 



Working for Good. 147 

stoned. It is not a very popular thing to be an 
earnest, zealous Christian. It is not. God never 
said : " All things are working together for the 
popularity of God's people." 

You take a popular preacher, a preacher whom 
every body likes, whom the gamblers like, the liars 
like, the drunkards like, and there is something 
wrong. Whenever liars and gamblers and hypo- 
crites and backslidden members like me, I'll tell 
the Lord : " I am wrong, I know I am. There 
is something wrong about this thing." 

I have noticed another thing. You recollect 
the Pharisees and Sadducees had no use for one 
another. They hated each other, but when Christ 
came along they clubbed together and let in on him. 
Here is a backsliding Baptist sister, and there is a 
backsliding Methodist sister. They have no use 
for each other under ordinary circumstances, but 
when a preacher comes along and knocks the bark off 
of them they join against him, and it is astonishing 
how intimate they get. They meet at the theater 
or at the card table, and there are a great many 
points on which they agree, and when they meet they 
join in the fight against this one or that one. 

Now I believe in voting. This country is run- 
ning a good deal on voting, and so on, and I want 
every lady in this house that enjoys religion, and 
has cares at home, who goes to the theater, who 
shines at social parties and dances, just square 
dances — she has not cut the corners off the thing 
yet — I want every lady here that really enjoys re- 
ligion, and goes to these places and plays cards and 



148 Sermons and Sayings. 

dances, to stand up. I want to see you. Stand 
up, every one of you ! If I were one I would 
stand up and be laughed at and say : " Here is 
one." What! none? But I will tell you what 
such persons will say now. They will say : " I 
do n't enjoy religion. I will admit that. I have 
got religion, but I do n't enjoy it." Now listen to 
me : There is but one reason why you do n't en- 
joy religion, and that is because you have n't got 
any to enjoy. It is the most enjoyable thing a 
fellow ever struck, and the question would be with 
me, How can I keep from enjoying it? Got re- 
ligion, but do n't enjoy it ! 

God never said that "all things shall work to- 
gether for the worldly honors of God's people." 
He never said that. I am glad the Lord's people 
do n't take many honors in this world the way it 
goes now. I am glad they don't take any good 
Christian and run him for President the way they 
run them now. I am glad of that. I tell you if 
a man w r ere all right and they were to run him for 
President, wouldn't they smirch him? Take 
Blaine and Cleveland. Ten years of close appli- 
cation of warm water and soft soap would not 
wash off the smirching and vituperation that was 
thrown on those two men in their last race. If 
what was said against those two men were true, 
they ought both to be in the chain gang. I am 
glad the Lord's people do not have things in that 
way. I do n't want to be President if they put 
more mud on me before I get there than I can 
wash off while I am there. 



Working for Good. 149 

Worldly honors! They are not for God's peo- 
ple. What does this mean? " All things work for 
good/' What is this " good?" It is n't health. It 
is n't happiness. It is n't prosperity. It is n't 
worldly honors. What is it the Lord means here ? 
Now, let us come to the true text for a moment : 
" All things work together for the salvation of them 
that love God." Salvation is the greatest good this 
earth ever heard of or can experience. Now, I can 
see into the text, and see into a thousand things. 
"All things work together for the salvation," for 
the present, and eternal salvation of them that love 
God. A heap of strange things happen in this 
world, sister. You say; "Well, I can not see, to 
save my life, how the loss of my husband could 
work for my good. I can not see how the loss of 
my sweet child can work for my good. I can not 
see how the loss of every dollar of our property can 
work for my good." O how strange things have 
happened ! Well, now, you see that clock on the 
mantel at home. You walk up and look at that 
clock. You take it down and look at the dial, and 
look at the works, which must be put together by 
a clockmaker. I took my clock to pieces once, 
and after I had put it together again I had suffic : ent 
wheels left to make another clock. I could not get 
it right. It had been made by a clockmaker, 
and only a clockmaker could put the wheels in 
their proper places again. When you look at the 
works of a clock you say: "Well, well, all those 
wheels can not be necessary. There is one big 
wheel turning slowly and another one fast. There 



150 Sermons and Sayings. 

is a great big one turning backward and a little 
one forward." You say a clock like that can not 
keep time. You put the dial back and the clock 
ticks on and strikes the hours, and you say : " It 
does keep time. I do not care how it looks." Now, 
God sets up in heaven the largest clock of all, and 
we can not see the machinery. Here is health and 
peace in your family. Well, that is a little wheel 
moving forw T ard. The last dollar of your property 
is swept away. Well, that is a big wheel turning 
backward; but all things work for you, and work 
harmoniously in one direction for your present good 
and eternal salvation. 

When I was at Columbus, Ga., I walked through 
an immense cotton factory. I was shown all the 
machinery, that which cut the hoops around the 
raw cotton, that which picked the cotton, and I 
followed one machine after another, from one floor 
to another. I watched some machinery carding 
cotton, others pulling it on to reels. At times I 
would say : " Look here, surely this is not the way to 
make cloth. If I did not want to make cloth, I 
w r ould do just as you are doing." But when we got 
to the last machine, on the fourth floor, there was 
a pile of cotton cloth bundled up ready for the 
market. I looked down the line of machines and 
said, every machine in this factory works together 
for cloth ; and, sister, by and by, when you step 
into the heavenly gates, you will look back and say : 
" Every thing in my life worked for good." O, 
how true these things are ! 

My father used to say : " My son, if you do that 



Working for Good. 151 

I will correct you." When I got off by myself I 
said : " Papa is so cruel to me. Sometimes lie 
whips me for doing some things, and if ever I get 
grown up I am going to ask papa what made him 
do that." But I was not eighteen when I found 
that my father had corrected me for things that 
would have ruined me if I had been left alone. 
When you get to heaven you will say: " God 
brought me to salvation the only way he could 
have brought me safely thus far." 

"All things work together for good." A man 
once gave me this illustration of the text. He said 
he was sitting out under a tree in a garden eating 
a biscuit when he saw a little ant climbing upon 
the plank. He watched it, and said : " I reckon 
this little ant is in search of food." He had 
dropped a crumb, but the little ant was going in 
the opposite direction to it. He put his finger in 
the way of the ant to direct it to the crumb, and 
the little thing seemed to lose patience and want to 
quarrel with him, and it seemed to say: "Why do 
you stop me? I am hunting food for my young." 
The ant started off in another direction, and he 
dropped his finger again in front of the little ant, 
which seemed to be madder than before, and it 
seemed to say: " O, you great intelligent creature, 
why do you stop me? I am hunting food for my 
young." He dropped his finger in front of the ant 
again and again, and each time it seemed to say : 
"Why do you stop me? I am in earnest search of 
food for my young." He said he dropped his finger 
in front of the ant until he directed it to the crumb, 



152 Sermons and Sayings. 

and when it picked the crumb up it seemed to say : 
" I am so glad you put me in the way of finding this. 
Here is more food than I could have found in a 
month if you had left me alone. " In this world 
when we are moving in the wrong direction, down 
comes the providential finger of God, and you say : 
"I know I have the worst luck of any body." 
And we stand and quarrel with God and ourselves. 
We start out in another direction, and just about 
the time we think we are about to succeed, down 
comes God's providential finger, and we say : " Just 
look at that !" In this way God drives us right to 
the gate of heaven, and when we walk in there we 
say : " Glory be to God. If we had been left alone 
we would have gone to perdition, but he has driven 
me right to the joys of everlasting life." 

Providence means going before. I believe in 
Providence as strongly as I believe in any thing. 
Here is a wagon train moving westward. A horseman 
lopes ahead, picks out the camping-place, buys the 
provender for the stock, and arranges every thing. 
That man was the providence of the wagon train. 
Providence goes on ahead to arrange and plan 
every thing. Now let us in God's providence from 
this time say : " I will go along, and trust in God 
that every thing will work together for good. 
Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down, 
for the Lord upholdeth his hand." 

I hold a baby's hand as it walks. Its foot 
strikes something, and it falls with a force that 
would crush its face. But I hold up the baby by 
the hand, and I say, " Baby, I am so glad you had 



Working for Good. 153 

my hand. If you had not held it you would have 
ruined your little face on the rocks. I have some- 
times gone along and fallen, and I have thought I 
was gone forever, but the Lord had my hand and 
held me up, and I say, " Bless the Lord ! If he had 
not held my hand I should have fallen down into 
eternal despair." 

One day my two little boys ran ahead of me on 
the sidewalk. Directly I noticed they were back 
again holding by my fingers. Well, I thought, 
" What does this mean ?" I loooked ahead and saw 
a few steps in advance a lot of cattle on the side- 
walk. Just as they saw the cattle they ran back 
and got hold of my fingers and continued to laugh 
and play, as much as to say : " We were afraid when 
we saw those cattle alone, but now we would laugh 
and play if all the cattle in the world were here, for 
we are with father." Let me say to you, if you 
have got hold of God's hand, you are safe. When 
dangers and disappointments beset you, you laugh 
and rejoice. Lord, help and bless us, and save us. 



SAYINGS. 

What We Will Be. — We had a talking meet- 
ing in Trinity Church, Atlanta, in which I took up 
the different parts of an engine as an illustration of 
the various machinery of the great engineering power 
of the Church. One fellow got up and said, " I 
would like to be the boiler of the engine where the 
power is generated." Another said, " I ; d like to 
be the cow-catcher, to keep the way clear." Another 



154 Sermons and Sayings. 

said, "I'd like to be the head-light, to light up the 
track." Another said, " I ; d rather be the whistle, 
and sound the praises of God all over the country." 
Another said, " I ; d like to be the cab and protect 
the engineer." And so they went on ; until one got 
up and said, " Brethren, I am perfectly willing to 
be the old, black coal they pitch into the furnace 
and burn up to generate the heat that moves the 
train on to glory." Ah, that is it. If we had more 
of the old, black coal sort, to pitch into the furnace, 
we would carry this train to heaven. O God, if 
necessary to the salvation of this city, let me be the 
coal, and be consumed in drawing this people to God 
and heaven. 

But One Question. — In the great work of 
redemption, I have but one question to ask: "Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do ?" I '11 never stop 
to ask God what he is going to do and how he is 
going to do it and when he is going to do it; but 
the question that engages my mind is, " Lord, what 
wilt thou have me to do ?" I never preach on the 
divine side of the Gospel. The water is deep out 
there, and little boats ought to stay near the shore. 
I 'd want to be a first-class swimmer if I should go 
out in the depths of divine mysteries and inquire, 
of God what are the divine plans and the divine 
modes and the divine "when " and the divine " how." 
These are questions that never bother me at all. I 
simply want to know what God wants me to do, and 
if he '11 tell me, I '11 do that and trust him for the 
rest. 



Sermon VIII. 

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT, OR THE LOGIC 
OF DAMNATION. 

" Because sentence against an evil work is not executed 
speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in 
them to do evil." — Eccles. viii, 11. 

THIS is a wonderful old book we preachers 
take our texts from. In the book of Genesis 
we read of the creation of the world and the origin 
of man. God devotes one book to tell me of my 
origin, and the thousand chapters that follow tell 
me where I am going. We spend an hour here 
to-day on the pathway to the grave. This text 
belongs legitimately to the conclusion of the ser- 
mon, which is the answer to a question I want to 
ask you. I want first to ask the question, and I 
want us to spend twenty or thirty minutes trying 
to answer that question, and then we will let God 
answer this question ; for we ought to be willing 
that God should answer all questions that pertain 
to life and salvation. 

The question which I now propound plainly 
stated is this: " Why will you continue in sin?" 
Now, as simple as every word of that text is, may be 
we can spend a minute or two profitably in con- 
sideration of these words, "Why will you continue 
in sin ?" I do n't ask why you happen to be 
already a sinner. That involves three logical ques- 

155 



156 Sermons and Sayings. 

tions, which we have not the ability to discuss. I 
do n't ask why you have come out to this service a 
sinner. That will involve exculpatory statements 
on your part, which I have not the time nor dis- 
position to hear. But the question plainly stated is 
not, "Should you remain in sin?" or, "How you 
are a sinner?" but, " Why will you leave here an 
impenitent sinner?" And we narrow the question 
down a little, and we put it in this shape : " Why 
will you?" I don't mean the one behind you, nor 
the one in front of you. I mean you. God bless 
you ! This is a very personal matter. 

You can't get any body to die for you; you 
can't get any body to stand in your stead at the day 
of judment and be damned for you. You stand in 
your own shoes, as if you are the only individual 
that ever violated a law of God. This is pre- 
eminently a personal matter, and we do n't ask you 
why the world continues in sin or why the members 
of the Churches continue in sin, but we ask you, 
" Why will you continue in sin another day, an- 
other hour, another week?" 

We say first : Is it because you are ignorant as to 
the nature of sin ? Does any man in this congre- 
gation give me as his reason for living to-day in 
sin and living on in sin, because he doesn't know 
what sin is? Is there a man here this evening that 
does n 't know it is wrong to drink, wrong to violate 
the Sabbath, wrong to live in neglect of his Chris- 
tian duty? Do you plead ignorance of the nature 
of sin? The world stands convicted at this point. 

You let a member of the Church do wrong, and 



Eternal Punishment. 157 

you are the first one to see it. You let my foot 
slip, and you are the first man to see it and talk 
about it ; and your criticisms upon the life of the 
Christian people are an everlasting demonstration 
that you know what right is, and that you know 
what wrong is. You know there is a vast differ- 
ence between the way we look at men in Church 
and out of Church. The world expects something 
of a man in Church. I am glad it does. The world 
does n ? t expect much of you, and if it did it would 
be very much disappointed. Here is the difference 
between a member of the Church and a man out of 
Church. The member of the Church is a white piece 
of canvas, and if any thing is sprinkled upon him 
it makes a spot easy to discern. But that old sin- 
ner is a black, dingy piece of canvas, and you can 
just take any thing and rub upon him, and it does n't 
show at all. You let me go into a bar-room and 
take a drink of whisky, and it is wired all over the 
country, and read in every newspaper at the break- 
fast table to-morrow morning. You go in and take 
a drink every morning and nobody notices you. 
This is the difference between a gentleman and a 
vagabond. You let me go out on the streets and pro- 
fane the name of God, and it is flashed across the 
world, " Jones is in the city, swearing." You can 
swear every day. Nobody notices you. Nobody ex- 
pects any better of you for it. That is the difference be- 
tween a gentleman and a vagabond. I thank God, I 
have lived to see the day in my State when nobody 
will swear or drink whisky but vagabonds. You 
don't like that? Do you? I don't blame vou. 



158 Sermons and Sayings. 

I would not either. Fifteen years ago I would have 
felt very much insulted if I heard a preacher say 
that. The truth is the same now that it was then, 
but, O, what a different fellow I am now from what I 
was then. Drinking is the habit of a vagabond, 
and profanity is the habit of a vagabond; and if 
you will be profane and swear you lack that much 
of being a gentleman. No gentleman will profane 
the name of God, and whatever else you lack, I am 
sorry to say that many of you come that much short 
of being a gentleman. 

Ignorant of the nature of sin! Will you say 
you don't know your life is wrong? Every man 
answers back, and says: " That is not my excuse. 
I know what right is, and I know right is right. 
I know what wrong is, and further than that, I 
know wrong is wrong." Then we stop here and 
ask you this question : Is there any man that says, 
" The reason I live in sin is because I do n't know 
what the consequences of a sinful life are?" I 
know, forsooth, because this nineteenth century is 
wicked, there is a hell. I heard a minister say 
once, " That science is going to demonstrate that 
there is no hell." Said I, " When that delegation 
comes back I want to be on hand when they re- 
port." Science knows as little about hell, and what 
is in hell, as science knows about the birthplace of 
God. The biggest fool I know is that fool who 
gets into the biggest, broadest way to hell, and stops 
by the way and tries to persuade men there is no 
hell. The biggest fool is the man who spends his 
probationary existence in arguing that there is no 



Eternal Punishment. 159 

> 

hell, and then lies down in hell forever, realizing 
that there is one. You poor dunce, what do you 
know of what is down there? Did you ever at- 
tend a Universalist meeting? I was at a Univer- 
list meeting one day, and that day all the red-nosed 
drunkards and gamblers and rascals of the town 
had the front seats and amen corners. All I want 
to know of a preacher is, who has got the amen 
corners? 

God pity you living in sin. What is to become 
of you ? Let this book speak out, and this is the 
only book that says any thing of the other side of 
the tomb. I will keep to this book until you find 
us something better, for this book says that "the 
wicked shall be turned into hell with all the nations 
that forget God." I believe in a bottomless hell, 
and I believe that the wicked shall be turned into 
hell. I do believe that the righteous have hope 
after death, and eternal life is the legitimate end of 
a good man. I mean to say that God will not 
punish a single person except he fly in the face of 
the required law laid down on every page of this 
book ; except he lay his hand over every scar in his 
heart and says there is no scar there. I do believe 
if a man lives right he will get to heaven, and those 
who do wrong will go to hell. 

Do you think there is fire there? I don't know 
whether there will be any before you get there, un- 
less you take something with you to burn you 
through all eternity. Every sinner carries his own 
brimstone with him. No sir, that man says he 
knows the legitimate end of a sinful life is hell; 



160 Sermons and Sayings. 

and if you will tell me how long sin will last, I 
will tell you how long hell will last. " It is not 
because I am ignorant of the nature or consequen- 
ces of sin that I continue in it," may be your reply 
to my question. Then what is it? Are you in- 
different to the results? O, how many men meet 
truth without a tremor in their muscles. When a 
man reaches this point, when you can't move him 
with truth, he is immovable. 

What stolid indifference we meet on all sides! 
Men know their life is short, and that they may be 
in their coffins before to-morrow evening's sun, yet 
they are indifferent to their condition. " Indiffer- 
ent?" You say, "I know what preachers think of 
me, and neighbors think of me as indifferent, but 
down in my heart I think and feel more than any 
body has discovered. I have gone home from 
Church with my Christian wife, her arm in mine, 
and I have heard my soul beat with conviction, but 
I would not have my wife hear it. Thank God, 
wherever else I went, I was never indifferent to the 
great truths of eternity. No, sir ; it is not indif- 
ference. I look as if I were, but I am not." 

Then, we ask, Is it recklessness ? Is it because 
you know the truth and will dare the truth? Is it 
that? Recklessness is a poor thing in any world? 
O, how reckless some men are. We see that Alpine 
hunter as he walks on the narrow paths, with preci- 
pices on both sides. He realizes his risk, yet he 
walks on across the path, while the very dog that 
walks behind hirn will wince and turn. I have 
known men who seemed to be so reckless that they 



Eternal Punishment. 161 

were unwilling to live on to their three-score years 
and ten, and lie down and die in the natural order of 
things. I see them at twenty years of age begin to 
drink, and they drink on until thirty years of age. 
They know they are about gone. " One year more, 
just twelve months, is all I can last/* they say. 
Yet the poor fellow goes on, and seems to be griev- 
ing for damnation. And I see him walk out on 
the street, all besotted with whisky, and pick a 
quarrel with a friend, and that friend shoots him 
down, and he leaps from the sidewalks of the city 
into hell. God pity you ! After all that has been 
said and done you will go, within twelve months, to 
a drunkard's grave ! Forty years old, and before 
you are forty-one you will fall into a drunkard's 
grave ! How is it? 

Recklessness ! You say, " I know wrong is 
wrong, but I won't heed it. I curse publicly. I 
drink openly. I sin with a high hand." God pity 
you! If I were going to sin I w r ould crawl off in 
some dark corner and never let my example be 
seen to lead on any others. How reckless poor 
humanity is at times concerning the truth ! It hurries 
on to the edge of the precipice, and stands and 
shudders but a moment, then makes a leap, from 
which there is no recovering forever. 

"No, sir, it is not recklessness!" 

Then I stop and ask you this question: Is it 
because you are satisfied in your present condition ? 
Thank God, no man was ever satisfied with himself 
as a sinner. Twenty-five years of the gall of bitter- 
ness and the bonds of iniquity have persuaded me 

14 



162 Sermons and Sayings. 

that no man would ever be satisfied with himself as 
a sinner. Like the rough sea, you have no rest. 
You are devoid of peace within your breast. Thank 
God, he will not let a sinner lie down and sleep on 
his way to hell. 

"No, sir, I am not satisfied with myself." 

And when those innocent children throw their 
lovely arms around your neck and look up in your 
face, in all the innocence of their nature, you say, 
"Of all the women that God ever gave children to, 
I am least calculated to lead them to God and ever- 
lasting life." 

" Satisfied with myself? No, sir. Nobody can say 
that away from God and on his way to perdition." 

Then we will ask again, is it because of your 
inconsideration ? I know sometimes a man will 
look at a thing and then look off. Do you know 
what bar-rooms are for, and billiard tables, and 
cards, and germans? They are tricks of the devil 
to keep your mind off of yourself. Sometimes men 
get conviction of the Divine Spirit, and they will go 
and dance it off; drink and swear and gamble it off. 
God pity a man who has convictions and will dance 
and curse them away; convictions that a lost spirit 
would give the world if he could have. If the 
devil can keep you busy all day in your store and 
make you dance yourself to sleep, he has got 
you pretty safe. There are members of the Church 
that rent houses for bar-rooms. You are a joint 
stock owner of that thing, and if you can tell me 
how a man of God can be a joint stockholder in a 
bar-room, then you have explained to me one of the 



Eternal Punishment. 163 

profoimdest mysteries of moral science. Every man 
belonging to a club is a joint owner of that bar- 
room. I have been expecting some of the high- 
bred gentlemen to come forward and defend the club. 
If I had such a nice thing I would just hire news- 
papers and defend it. And I will tell you that no 
bar-room,, that no deck of cards, can be defended 
in heaven, on earth or in hell. You could not hire 
a decent idiot to sail into me on that question. I 
suppose some of you are mean enough to sail in, 
but you have got too much sense. I can associate 
with members of the Church, who belong to it, 
but when you set in to defend it, I would not wipe 
my feet on you. I am perfectly willing to give 
you all the time that I am not engaged in preaching. 

"It is not because I am satisfied with my present 
condition. It is not because I won't think. I 
have thought, but doubts arise about these things." 

Is it because you are leading a sort of comprom- 
ise life ? Do you say, I am going to be religious 
after a while. There is not a lost spirit in hell that 
has not said the same thing. You are going to be 
religious to-morrow. All that is within you, be- 
tween you and eternal despair, is your heart that 
beats, and if that heart stops beating you are gone 
forever. "No," you say, "it is not because I am 
leading a compromise life." 

Is it because a spiritual apathy has taken pos- 
session of you? O, how men sleep over their eternal 
interests ! A man sleeping on the edge of a preci- 
pice, and he may go over forever ! The wife of Mr. 
Rogers, of Marietta, Ga., was indisposed one morn- 



164 Sermons and Sayings. 

ing. He sent a servant down street for quinine, 
and when he returned with it, his wife took the pre- 
scription, mixed it and swallowed it. She then 
went to the door and said, " Husband, that was not 
quinine I took just now." He ran hurriedly to the 
drug store. "What is that you sent my wife?" 
And the doctor answered, "I have sent enough 
morphine to your house to kill a dozen persons. I 
did it by mistake." He ran back and got another 
physician and they went to his house and commenced 
to administer emetics. A death-like stupor came 
over her, and she turned to her husband and said : 
" Please, sir, let me go to sleep." " O, no, if you go 
to sleep you will not awaken this side of eternity." 
They walked her up and down the floor, threw cold 
water on her face and continued to administer 
emetics. Again the death-like stupor seized her 
and she said: " Please, sir, let me go to sleep five 
minutes." " O, wife, if you sleep five, minutes you 
will never waken up again." And they worked 
and wearied until four hours passed away, and then 
the doctor said, " Now we have saved her." I have 
seen thousands w T ith that death-like stupor upon 
them, and they say, Just let me sleep these last 
precious verses through, and as the last note dies 
aw T ay they are asleep, and when they awake they 
w r ill open their eyes in hell. God pity a man that 
will sleep his eternal interests away. 

You say it is not ignorance as to the nature of 
sin ; it is not the consequences of sin ; it is not be- 
cause you are leading a compromise life; nor be- 
cause of inconsiderateness ; nor because you are 



Eternal Punishment. 165 

sleeping through your interests. Is it because you 
have a conquered peace that defies all the bat- 
teries of Heaven ? Bishop Pierce was preaching at 
a camp-meeting in Georgia, and among those at- 
tending there was a man not a Christian. He was 
an old man, and sat out in the straw in front of 
the bishop. The bishop said, when he sat down, 
"Something said to me, * You are preaching the last 
awakening sermon that man will ever hear/ and 
the good power came to me, and I turned it upon 
the head of that old sinner. " He sat and turned 
and twisted in his chair, and bit his lips, and when 
the bishop quit preaching he got up, went to his 
cottage and barred the door, fastened the win- 
dow, and prostrated himself on his face. By and 
by his wife came and knocked for admission, and 
the only answer she received w r as the groans of her 
husband. She looked through the cracks of the 
door and saw him prostrated on his face. She went 
back at 3 o'clock and he was in the same position. 
At sundown the battle was going on ; at 12 o'clock 
that night the contest was still going on, waxing 
hotter and thicker, but grander in its results than 
the battles of Waterloo, or Gettysburg, or any bat- 
tle that earth ever saw. At sunrise the next morn- 
ing it continued, and at 9 o'clock it yet went on. 
At 1 o'clock the wife was standing opposite the cot- 
tage, and she saw the door fly open and she ran up 
to him. She could tell by the cold marble of his 
countenance that he had conquered. Yet it took him 
twenty-five hours to do it. That old man lived and 
died, but he did not have to fight any other battle. 



166 Sermons and Sayixgs. 

You have got to surrender to God this evening. 
The hell-spirit is here, and you have got to expel 
this spirit out of your heart. It may not take you 
twenty-five hours; it may not take you twenty-five 
seconds to fight the last battle. How long will we 
go on in sin? How long will God forbear? Where 
does hope end, and where begin the confines of 
despair ? Will you take the step this evening from 
which there is no recovery ? 

In Ecclesiastes, chapter eight, eleventh verse, is 
the logic of damnation. Because sentences are not 
speedily executed; because justice does not crush 
you down immediately, are you to go on to ruin? 
Because there are ten years between me and eternal 
punishment, shall I spend these ten years in sin? 
Because God is good, shall I keep on in wickedness? 

If that drunken man knew that in his next 
drunken dream God would send him to hell ; if that 
profane swearer knew that the next oath he swore 
God would send him immediately to hell, they 
would not drink or swear any more. Do n't think 
because the sentence is not speedily executed you 
can keep going speedily on. God help every one 
of us this evening! I recollect that day in my ex- 
perience when I could look my precious wife in the 
face and say, "I have drank my last drop, wife." I 
recollect when I could look my friends in the face 
and say, " I have sworn my last oath." 

Do n't put it off any longer, until you are gray- 
headed. Choose you this day whom you will serve. 
If I were a young man I would want to be re- 
ligious. If I were an old man I would want to be 



Eternal Punishment. 167 

religious. If the Spirit of God in Christ had always 
been cruel to me, I would serve him for what he 
was to my mother. Q, how good he was to her. 
How he charmed her to his loving heart, and how 
sweetly she died ! If Christ had always been cruel 
to me I would love him fur what he was to my 
precious father. I would love him for what he is 
to my precious wife and children. I will love and 
praise him forever for what he has done for me 
and mine. 



SAY IN OS . 

The Stoey of Zaccheus. — Repentance ! Re- 
pentance ! I think I never, in my experience as a 
preacher, found a soul that was willing to give up 
sin, give up all sin, and stay at that point with the 
white flag run up, that Cod did not go to that soul. 
I recollect in my own experience, I thought I had 
cried a heap, and I thought I had mourned a heap, 
and I went along mourning and crying, and I gave 
up such sins as I thought I could get on best with- 
out, and when I quit crying and mourning and 
threw my sins down, I was at once conscious that 
God was my friend and that Christ was my Savior. 
How did they get religion when Christ was on 
earth? He saw Zaccheus up a sycamore tree. I 
do n't know what he was doing there. But Christ 
saw him. Zaccheus was a rich fellow, and, I sup- 
pose, had pretty high notions, and Christ said to 
him, " Come down, Zaccheus, this day salvation has 
entered your house." And Zaccheus started down 
that tree, and got religion somewhere between the 



168 Sermons and Sayings. 

lowest limb and the ground. At any rate he had it 
before he hit the ground. He said : " What I have 
taken wrongfully from any man I restore it to 
him fourfold." He had a good case of religion in 
him when he hit the ground, there is no doubt of 
that. 

Eternal Life. — Blessed be God, I believe in 
eternal life. I can not live with any other thought. 
Just thirty years ago I tiptoed into my father's par- 
lor, one morning, and they said : " Be quiet, mamma's 
dead!" I was not old enough to understand it. 
I walked up to the casket and looked down upon 
my mother. She looked paler and sadder than I 
had ever seen her, and when they removed the lid 
father kissed her, and elder brother kissed her, and 
I kissed her, and I said : " Precious mamma's lips 
are so cold." She has been buried in the State of 
Alabama thirty years, and if I were to go down 
there to-morrow and dig the earth off of my 
mother's body and disinter her bones, I suppose I 
could gather them all up in my hands, and as I 
stand there looking at my mother's bones, I would 
say : " Great God, is this all that is left of my 
precious mother?" And as I stand looking at those 
bones my knees smite together, and I am in de- 
spair, and all at once a voice speaks audibly in my 
ear, and says : " This corruption shall put on incor- 
ruption. This mortality shall be swallow r ed up of 
immortality." And I look up, and say, " Thanks 
be unto God that giveth us the victory through our 
Lord Jesus Christ." 



Sermon IX. 

UNGODLINESS AND WORLDLY LUSTS. 

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath ap- 
peared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and 
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, 
in this present world." — Titus ii, 11, 12. 

THE honor of Christ and the salvation of our 
own souls depend largely upon our holding 
proper views of the Scripture and practicing its 
precepts. Ignorance is a sort of heterogeneous 
compound that neither God nor man can do much 
with. The fact is, we must know something be- 
fore we are capacitated to do something, and all 
intelligent action is based on intelligent thought; 
and there can be no intelligent thought unless we 
first know some things. The man who really knows 
one thing well is on the road to know a great 
many things, and the trouble, perhaps, with a large 
mass of humanity is, they have never known one 
thing well. 

" For the grace of God that bringeth salvation 
hath appeared to all men, teaching us," instructing 
us, qualifying us. Teaching us what? "That 
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should 
live soberly, righteously, and godly in this pres- 
ent world." That is, in plain English, teaching us 
that we must cease to do evil, and learn to do well. 

Conversion is a very common term in the 
Church and in the pulpit. Sometimes we use it in 

15 169 



170 Sermons and Sayings. 

a very vague sense. Conversion, Scripturally, means 
simply two things: first, I have quit the wrong; 
and second, I have taken hold of the right. No 
man is Scripturally converted until he throws down 
the wrong and walks off 4 from the wrong and walks 
up to the right and espouses the cause of the right. 
Religion is a two-fold principle, or rather it is a 
principle that enables man to discern the right and 
to do the right, to discern the wrong and to make 
him hate the wrong. There are two elements in 
every pious life: 1. Negative goodness; 2. Positive 
righteousness. Negative goodness is not religion. 
If negative goodness were religion, then one of 
these lamp-posts out here would be the best Chris- 
tian in town ; it never cursed, nor swore, nor drank 
a drop since it was made ; it never did any thing 
wrong. If negative goodness were religion, then a 
stock, or stone, or mountain, would be the best 
specimen of Christian this world has. Negative 
goodness is, perhaps, one of the halves of religion ; 
but genuine religion, Christly religion, means not 
only that a man is negatively good, but that he is 
positively righteous. There is no power in a nega- 
tive position or in being negative. Christ Jesus 
saw this, when he told his preachers to go forth 
affirming and preaching the Gospel, not to go con- 
futing the denials of infidelity. I never uttered a 
sentence in my life to prove that the Bible is true. 
I never spent five minutes in my life trying to 
prove there is a hell. I never spent fifteen seconds 
in the pulpit in my life trying to prove there is a 
God. Nobody but a fool needs such argument. A 



Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. 171 

man told me once : a I do n't believe there is a 
God. I don't believe I am any thing but mortal." 
Said I : "If I were you I would get me a little 
more hair and a tail and be a sure-enough dog — I 
believe I would." 

There is, as I said, no power in a negative force, 
and none in a negative position of any sort. We 
are not sent forth to deny any thing that any body 
says, but we are sent forth to affirm something. 
An aggressive Christianity is always affirmative. I 
am sorry for the preacher that has backsliden far 
enough to try to prove in his sermon that there is 
a God. I am sorry for the preacher that has got 
so low down in his theology that he is trying to es- 
tablish the fact that there is a hell. I know of men 
trying to establish the fact that there is no hell. A 
gentleman said to me the other day that the fact was 
nearly established. I said to him. " When did you 
start your exploring party down there, and when will 
they return to report?" He said he had n't started 
any body and he wasn't looking for them to re- 
turn. Said I, " How are you going to prove any 
thing about it then?" And I want to tell you 
this much : The assertions of the word of God on 
all these questions stand unshaken to-day, and a lit- 
tle colored child of three years old in this city knows 
just as much about hell as any living scientist. I 
suppose some of the dead ones know more about it. 
There's many a fellow that has written hell out of 
his theology here, but he w r on't be in hell fifteen 
seconds till he will jump and say, " My Lord ! 
What a mistake I have made in my theology." 



172 Sermons and Sayings. 

Bob Ingersoll was speaking on one occasion — 
I have a good deal of respect for Bob Ingersoll, 
a great deal more respect than I have for some 
members of the Church. When Bob says he does n't 
believe the Bible and doesn't pay any attention to 
its precepts, they say they believe it, but do just as 
Bob does, you see. I can't stand that. And it 
is n't theoretical infidelity that is cursing this coun- 
try ; it is practical infidelity. Well, Ingersoll was 
lecturing — I believe it was in Milwaukee — and there 
were standing up in the corner of the platform 
where he was speaking three or four drunken men, 
talking in an undertone. That crowd felt they 
ought to take the amen corners on Bob; and all I 
want to know about any fellow is who takes the 
amen corners on him ; and when you find Bob 
preaching you will find the amen corners filled with 
old red-nosed drunkards and other vagabonds of 
the town ; they have rushed up and taken the amen 
corners. When Bob made the assertion, " There is 
no hell, and I can prove it to any reasonable man," 
he got the attention of that crowd, of course. They 
were interested at this point, and one of them 
straightened himself up, and staggered up to Bob 
and put his hand on his shoulder, and said, " Can 
you, Bob ?" He said, " Yes, I can." " Well," said 
the fellow, " do it, Bob ; and make it mighty strong, 
for I tell you that nine-tenths of us poor fellows in 
Milwaukee are depending on how you make that 
thing." 

So we say we never need to try to prove any 
thing that the Bible asserts. We are to preach the 



Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. 173 

word to the people and the Bible will take care of 
itself. The Bible was the guide of my mother. 
It was the stay of my father's life ; it was a lamp 
unto his feet and a light unto his path, and he be- 
queathed it to me as his richest gift to his wayward 
boy. And I say to you to-night, take all other 
things from me and my home, but leave me my 

Bible. 

This precious book I 'd rather own. 

Than all the golden gems 
That e'er in monarchs' coffers shone, 

Or on their diadems. 
And were the seas one chrysolite, 

This earth a golden ball, 
And gems were all the stars of night, 

This book were worth them all. 

Ah, no, the soul ne'er found relief 

In glittering hoards of wealth ; 
Gems dazzle not the eye of grief ; 

Gold can not purchase health. 
But here a blessed balm appears 

For every human woe, 
And they that seek that book in tears, 

Their tears shall cease to flow. 

Bless God for the Bible, which is the guide of 
my life and the inspiration of my soul. 

We said a moment ago that its positive and nega- 
tive features — these two combined — give the Chris- 
tian life force and power. There is no power in 
electricity until you bring the two forces, positive and 
negative, together. You see that negative electricity 
gathering about the trunk of this old oak tree ? That 
tree has withstood a thousand storms, and now we 
see this negative electricity climbing up its body 
and settling in its foliage, and now the positive 



174 Sermons and Sayings. 

electricity passes over it in the cloud, and negative 
strikes positive, and the two forces come together in 
the top of this old oak tree, and it comes with a 
crash and splits that oak tree from its topmost twig 
to its lowest roots. There 's power. There 's om- 
nipotence. And so in the life of every good man 
who is negatively good and positively righteous. 
Look at George Whitefield with his whole nature 
surcharged with negative goodness and his life full 
of positive righteousness. We see him going out to 
Moorfields near London at three and four o'clock 
in the morning ; and with 10,000 lanterns blazing 
all around him, he preaches the Gospel. Before day- 
light and sun-up he has a thousand penitents and a 
thousand converts, and does more before breakfast 
than all the pulpits in London could do the year 
round. That looks like business. 

Negative goodness! The Lord knows I have 
a contempt for the goody-goody members of the 
Church. Old Brother Goody-Goody and old Sister 
Goody-Goody are just goody-goody, and so good 
they are good for nothing ! Have n't you seen 
'em? I believe in doing good. I like goodness. 
I despise every wicked act that a man can do. But 
I tell you this, I have had members, as a pastor, 
who would work and do their level best, but every 
three or four months they would get drunk in spite 
of every thing I could do. When they were sober 
they went up to their eyes in religion and in work 
and in righteousness. I hate this thing you call 
drunkenness, and no man hates it more than I do ; 
but I would rather have a member of the Church 



Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. 175 

who gets drunk every three or four months, but 
works when he is sober, and does his level best, 
than one of these sober fellows that ain't of any 
account anyhow, and that might just as well be 
drunk or just as well be dead. God pity these 
lazy, shiftless fellows. All they want in God's 
world is somewhere to sit down and somewhere to 
spit. Spitting room is a big thing with lazy men. 
Teaching us that we must quit the wrong; 
"that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we 
should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this 
present world. " Teaching us this fact, and the first 
lesson Christ ever taught man here was this : " You 
are a sinner ; you are a wrong doer ; you ought to 
cease to do evil ; you ought to forsake your sins." 
And I will say right at this point, I could never lay any 
claim to the salvation of Jesus Christ until I bound 
all my sins up in one common bundle and threw them 
all down, and walked over the river of resolution, 
and set fire to the bridge behind me, and stood and 
watched till the last expiring spark dropped into 
the water. Then I turned my back on sin and 
said, " I am in now for salvation or nothing; " and 
I hadn't got fifteen steps from the bank of that 
river till I was in the arms of God, a saved man. 
And I declare to you to-night, you men of the 
Church who say, " I can 't live without sin," that 
no man ever found God, and no man was ever con- 
verted, until he quit his sins. That's all there is 
about it. When I stand up and preach against sin 
and sinners, the Church cries, like Macbeth in the 
tragedy, " ( Lay on, Macduff.' Give it to him. He 



176 Sermons and Sayings. 

ought to have it." But when I preach at the 
Church and say, " You men who profess to be Chris- 
tians, you are living in sin/' they say, "O, he's one 
of these sanctificationists, and he 's putting on airs." 
You want me to give it to these old sinners, but let 
you alone. 

Ah, me ! brother ! If God Almighty expects 
these sinners to quit sin, what does he expect of 
you who profess to love him, who profess to be 
Christians? That's the way to talk it. Cease to 
do evil and learn to do well. I want to say here 
in my place to-night, that I profess to know a few 
things along this line, and propose to say them to 
that member of the Church that dances and attends 
theaters and plays progressive euchre — and that's 
the best named game I ever heard. Progressive 
euchre ! Progressive euchre ! — double-quick to hell, 
right along. And I say another thing. There is 
no progressive euchre player in this house that 
ought not to be indicted for violating the laws of 
the State and be put in one of the jails of this 
county. How do you like that? It is just gam- 
bling scientifically, magnificently, gloriously, socially, 
and so forth. That 's what it is. And I '11 tell you, 
in our State we can indict a man and put him in 
the penitentiary for playing progressive euchre with 
his neighbors any time, and I want to see the day 
come when, if Christians haven't got faith enough 
in the Lord Jesus Christ and their profession to 
bind them to decency and right, the law will help 
us to make our members decent. I do, I do, sure. 

And the man who is running these things — I 



Ungodliness and Wokldly Lusts. 177 

tell you the truth, brethren — that man never was 
converted, that man never has repented, that man 
is still in the bonds of iniquity and the gall of bit- 
terness. You ask me why? Well, I got religion 
fourteen years ago last August — I was right sure 
there — and it knocked that card-playing, theater- 
going system out of me right there ! And I have 
never had a symptom of it since ; and whenever the 
day comes in my religious experience that I want 
to play cards, and want to drink whisky, and want 
to attend theaters, I want to drop down on my 
knees and tell the Lord : " My religion is played 
out, sure. I never felt this symptom since I was 
converted, and now, Lord, as with most Methodists, 
my religion has left me. Give it back to me again." 
That ? s the way I talk ; and all I can say of you 
Presbyterians and Christians and Baptists that are 
not on that line is, you never had any, because you 
can 't lose yours, you know ! When our members 
go to the devil, we say, iC They have lost their re- 
ligion," and when your members go to the devil, 
you say, " they never had any." Well, it does n't 
make any difference which way it is, the devil has 
got them, sure. 

'" Teaching us that we must cease to do evil and 
learn to do well." This is the Christian truth that 
teaches me to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, 
and to live soberly as to myself, righteously toward 
my neighbor, godly toward Him unto whom I owe so 
much. Now, here are the three positive attitudes 
of the Christian: 1. He is a sober-minded man in 
his relations toward all the world around him. 2. 



178 Seemons and Sayings. 

He is honest in his dealings with his fellow man, 
and 3. He is godly in his conduct toward his Maker. 

I like one of these sober-minded men that takes 
a particular view of every thing and goes for the 
long run all the time, and cares nothing for count- 
ing the present results, but is looking to the great 
long run. He is the same every day, and the same 
under all circumstanees, and the same everywhere; 
he is just as good in New York as he is in Cincinnati. 

There is many a fellow that is a good Christian 
in this city, but if he were to wear an indicator 
when he went to New York, when he got back his 
wife would quit hini, in my candid judgment. I like 
a religion that keeps me as good off of my knees as I 
am on my knees; just as good on the outside as I 
am on the inside ; just as good in New York as I 
am at home; just as good anywhere and everywhere 
and forever, as my promises and my vows demand 
I should be. I like that sort of Christianity — a 
sober-minded sort, that regulates all my life. I like 
that. 

Sober-mindedness — that 's the regulating force 
of every good man's life ; that makes him step along 
in an even, smooth way toward the good world. 
Some people think heaven is away off yonder, and 
some think hell is away down yonder, but I want 
to tell you that heaven is on a dead-level with every 
good man's heart, and I want to tell you the way 
to heaven is a dead-level. Christ dug down the 
mountains and filled up the valleys, and the way to 
heaven is a dead-level, and the way to hell is a 
dead-level, and there is only one road in the moral 



Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. 179 

universe, and one end of that road is hell and the 
other end of the road is heaven, and it does n't mat- 
ter so much who you are, as which way you are 
going. Don't you see? Soberly, righteously, a 
sober-minded man. 

You look at that stationary engine out yonder 
at the saw-mill. You see little governors playing 
around over the steam chest, and you see there that 
saw as it runs into that large log. That 62 inch 
circular saw runs right into the log, and the little 
governors let down, and additional steam is thrown 
against the piston head, and you see that saw wade 
right along through the log and run out at the other 
end, and the little governors lift up and let off the 
steam, and the saw runs at the same revolution to 
the minute, whether it is in or out. 

There is the Christian man, like Job. O, my, 
he was a sober-minded man. In prosperity, and 
when adversity came, and the last dollar was swept 
away from him, Job run in and out of the log; and 
he was running the same revolutions to the minute 
when he ran into infirmity and disease and pain, 
and as he ran right through and came out, run- 
ning the same revolution to the minute, he said : 
" Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. " 
And when they placed the charge against his char- 
acter that he had sinned and done wrong, he went 
right along through that and came out on the other 
side, and the Lord God said to him, " Job, take my 
arm and walk with me, and I will make your latter 
days more prosperous than your former days. v 

I like a sober-minded man — a man who will do 



180 Sermons and Sayings. 

the same thing all the time ; not one of those men 
who will do something during the revival meeting, 
and who does n't recollect that he did any thing out 
of the revival, and one day he will shake your 
hands, and another day he will hardly know you 
when he meets you on the street. I do n't like one 
of this persimmon-headed sort of fellows; I want a 
fellow who knows you when he meets you, every- 
where, and will do the same thing everywhere and 
under all circumstances. Sober-minded! A Chris- 
tian man ought to be sober-minded, and rest on 
this one promised — " all things work together for 
good to them that love God " — sober-minded as to 
ourselves and righteous towards our neighbors. 

I will tell you if there is any thing that relig- 
ion demands of a man, it is that he be downright 
honest. Honesty ! As somebody said : "An honest 
man is the noblest work of God/' and that is the 
grandest utterance outside of the lids of the Bible. 
"An honest man is the noblest work of God!" 
And when I say an honest man, I do n't mean a 
man simply that pays his debts — some of us ain't 
honest enough to do that. What this world needs 
right now is a larger course of downright honesty ; 
that's it. I will tell you, the Church of God will never 
take this world until we get honest. There are too 
many men in the Church boarding with their wives — 
agents for their wives. I want to die the day be- 
fore my wife appoints me her agent. Do you hear 
that? What! — a man in the Church of God and 
a prominent character, and that man living in a 
$30,000 house, and riding around in a $1,200 



Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. 181 

turnout, while the poor widow woman whose money 
he has is walking these streets with scarcely bread 
to eat ! If there is a hell at all that man will go 
there as certain as God is just. 

Honesty ! We want in this country men in 
the Church of God who will do what they say they 
will do. That's it. Why, sir, a man's Methodism 
is n't worth any thing to him in this country, and a 
man's Baptism or his Presbyterianism isn't worth 
any thing to him. You go down to a store to-mor- 
row and want a thousand dollars worth of goods on 
credit, and the fellow says : " Can you give me any 
security ?" " No ; I am a Methodist." " O, Lord ! 
You can't run that thing on me here." And let a 
Baptist go down there and say: "I'm a Baptist 
and I want credit." " Law, me ! If you will come 
in here and let me show you how these Baptists 
have gouged me, you would not play yourself off 
as a Baptist." And so with every denomination. 
I tell you to-night, the Church will never do the 
work God wants her to do until she is honest — 
honest towards God and honest towards man. I 
want to see the day come when all the Churches 
in the world will have the character in commercial 
life that the old Hardshell Church has in Georgia. 
Down at Athens, in that State, an old Hardshell 
walked in one day to a store and said to the mer- 
chant: "I want a couple of hundred dollars' worth 
of goods this year on credit." The merchant looked 
at his old hat and jeans pants, and concluded that 
was not the sort of a man to trust, and told him he 
would not give him the goods. The fellow turned 



182 Seemons and Sayings. 

and walked out, and the merchant asked a clerk in 
the store : " Who is that man ?" « That 's Mr. So- 
and-so ; he belongs to the Hardshell Church up 
here." The merchant went out after him and said : 
" Friend, come back here. Are you a Hardshell ?" 
He said, " Yes." " Well," said the merchant, " you 
can have all you want ; you can have all I have 
here in this store on credit for as long time as you 
need." And down in Georgia the Hardshells will 
turn a member out of Church for taking advantage 
of the homestead exemption act, or going into 
bankruptcy, just as quick as they would for steal- 
ing; they will that. 

Honesty ! I like that. We have collection laws 
all over this country, and we have ruined our peo- 
ple ; we have made our people dishonest by our 
laws — that is the truth about it. They are so con- 
structed that a man can, by a mere technicality, 
wipe out all his debts, and compromise with his 
creditors. 

Out in Waco, Texas, last year, there was a 
merchant thrown into bankruptcy, and he compro- 
mised his debts at a hundred cents on the dollar — 
just think of that — and paid it, every cent. He 
compromised his debts at a hundred cents on the 
dollar! He was a fool, wasn't he? He was a fool! 
They say in one heathen country they make every 
holiday a day for general handshaking among all 
enemies, and every fellow pays every dollar he owes 
in the world. That's a grand holiday, isn't it? 
They are heathens, though, ain't they? They must 
be heathens if they do that way. Make friends 



Ungodliness and Woeldly Lusts. 183 

with all my enemies and pay every dollar I owe 
every holiday ! Nobody but a heathen would do 
that, would he ? Righteously do the right thing ; 
do the right thing. 

And I want to say that those bankruptcy and 
homestead laws have been the curse of this country 
in all ages of it. I want to see the day come — and 
I beg your pardon for the expression — I want to 
see the day come when you can sell a man^s shirt 
off his back to pay his debts. I 'd rather die than 
to be in debt, and have things that other people 
ought to have. That's the way I look at it. 

You say, "Yes, you are talking mighty big." 
Yes, and I Ve talked little, too ; I want you to un- 
derstand that. The devil bankrupted me for both 
worlds, and when God converted my soul and I was 
called into the ministry, I was hundreds of dollars 
in debt, and I know how a man feels. I know how 
it cows a man, and I know how I have gone up 
with $2.50 at a time to pay a debt, while my wife 
had but one dress and I had one suit, and we were 
living at starvation rates, my wife doing her own 
ironing and her own nursing, and I splitting the 
wood and working and saving every nickel I could 
to pay my debts ; and in spite of that I have heargl 
of men saying : " If that fellow, Jones, would pay 
his debts I could have more confidence in him." 
I paid every cent, thank God! a hundred cents on 
the dollar, and I was just as good a man after I 
paid as I was before. And, thank God, that a poor 
man can be an honest man ! Thank God, that is 
true. 



184 Sermons and Sayings. 

Pll tell you the sort I find in my Bible. It is 
related that Obadiah borrowed $500 from Ahab 
and died before the money was due. After his 
death Ahab sued the widow for the debt, and lev- 
ied on her and her two children for the money. 
They could levy on children in those days, and 
they were to be sold in this case to pay the debt. 
The mother was in distress, and she hunted up — I 
had almost said a lawyer, but she never went within 
a mile of one, God bless you. She hunted up 
the best old prophet of God on the face of the earth. 
She stated her case to him and said : " My husband 
died owing this money and they have levied on my 
two children to pay this debt. What must I do ? " 
The old prophet looked at her and said : " What 
have you in your house ? " The poor woman re- 
plied, trembling : " Nothing but a pot of oil, and 
that is to embalm our bodies with." The prophet 
never said a word about the homestead, but he said : 
66 You go and pour out that oil and sell it, and pay 
that debt." She went home and borrowed vessels 
and drew enough oil out of the pot to pay the old 
debt, and she had more oil left afterwards than 
when she commenced to draw it. That was God 
.Almighty standing by an honest woman, do n't you 
see ? I have seen it repeated again and again, and 
I tell you that God Almighty will take care of hon- 
est men, if he has to put the angels on half rations 
for twelve months. 

I was once appointed to a certain work in a cer- 
tain county on a Georgia circuit. The year before 
the whole country was blighted with drouth. The 



Ungodliness and Woeldly Lusts. 185 

people had not made a bale of cotton to twenty 
acres, when they ought to have made a bale to every 
two acres. Corn was not a paying crop, and mer- 
chants were pressing their claims. I commenced 
preaching righteousness. I said : " I know your 
soil has been parched by the drouth, I know your 
crops are failures, I know you are poor, but " I con- 
tinued, " listen to me. If the sheriff comes on you 
and takes your house and your stock, and your all, 
let him take them, and then walk out with your 
wife and children, bareheaded and barefooted, so 
that you can say, 'We are homeless and breadless, 
but my integrity is as unstained as the character of 
God/ " 

O, for an unstained character ! That is what 
we want in this country. O, for an honest man ! I 
tell you there are too many men in this country who 
have widows' and orphans' legacies in their pockets, 
and, I am sorry to say, too many of that sort have 
broken into the Churches of this country, and every 
dollar of that money that you keep in your pocket 
as a preacher, and in your treasury as a Church, 
the devil will make you pay back with compound 
interest. He well knows that that is his money, and 
he does not loan his money without interest, and 
big interest at that. 

" Teaching us that we should live righteously." 

Righteous men — I like righteous men. James 

Thomson, the poet, was righteous in this sense. 

Lord Lyttleton says of him, that he wrote " no line 

which dying he could wish to blot." You are a 

merchant. Can you say on your dving pillow, " I 

16 



186 Sermons and Sayings. 

never performed a deed which I would now undo? 
Samuel, the prophet, was a righteous man, and when 
he walked out to his burial place, all Israel gathered 
around him, and the clear voice of the old prophet 
rang out as he asked these questions : " Whom have 
I cheated?" "Whom have I defrauded?" "Of 
whom have I received a bribe of money to blind 
my eyes ?" And all Israel answered back, " No 
one." O, that was a grand victory. 

But, brethren, the man who does not recognize 
his obligations to God is but half a man at best. 
I have my relations toward my family, and my re- 
lations toward my country, and my relations toward 
my God. I will meet the demands of my children 
and my home. I will meet the demands of my 
country. I will meet the demands of the God that 
made me and them. I am good for all worlds. A 
godly man is one that does every thing with refer- 
ence to the great eye of God that is looking down 
upon him, a man that is godly in his life and char- 
acter, and that does right toward the God that made 
him. Where do we find examples of godly men? 
St. Paul, the author of this text, was a godly mail. 
He lived for God, and counted all things as lost 
that he might please God. In his dying moments 
he sat in his dark dungeon and wrote in his last 
letter to Timothy : " The time of my departure is at 
hand." 

O, what a thought ! St. Paul meant to say to 
him : " I shall have a cold supper to-night and a 
cold breakfast in the morning; I shall sleep on a 
hard bed to-night, but I shall take dinner in heaven 



Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. 187 

to-morrow with God and the angels." He talked 
about his departure as a school boy talks of leaving 
school for home, and when his head was severed 
from his body God stooped down, picked up that 
bloody head, and placed a crown of everlasting life 
upon it. He was a godly man, and God will take 
care of that sort of man, living or dying. 

Just such a man as this died some months ago, 
and when his large family of Christian boys and 
girls stood around him, he struggled for breath in 
the last extremities of life. Just as his moments 
were drawing to a close he seemed restless and 
wanted to speak. His children's attention was at- 
tracted by his looks, and they said: " Father, is 
there any request you wish to make? If so, tell us 
what it is." He caught his breath and said, 
" Bring — " but, breaking down, he could not utter 
another word. His children gathered close around 
him and said, "Father, tell us what you want." 
Again he said, " Bring — " and could not utter an- 
other word. The children bent over him, and said, 
" Father, w r hat do you want brought ?" Presently 
his system relaxed in death, and with all his re- 
maining energy his lips uttered the words : 

"Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown him Lord of all." 

Then the soul swept out of his body and he 
never breathed another breath. God help us to 
live righteously, soberly, and godly in this world, 
and to look forward with blessed hope to the glori- 
ous appearing of the great God and our Savior, 
Jesus Christ. 



188 Seemons and Sayings. 

At times within the past ten years I have thought 
of going back to the practice of law, and of accum- 
ulating a fortune that my family might be provided 
for, and of preaching the Gospel in after life ; but 
with the blessed hope of God before me I have con- 
tinued right on. My eyes are on something better, 
grander, and nobler. When kind friends in Nash- 
ville said: " Here is a ten-thousand-dollar 
home, and we will give thousands in bonds 
if you will make your home in our midst," 
I replied : " No. In our own quiet little cottage 
my wife and children and myself love God and are 
striving to get to heaven. Excuse me. I love you 
just as much as if I accepted it." Then my wife 
said to me : " Husband, I am prouder of you for 
that than for any other act in your history. " 

And I want to say to this congregation that I 
am getting higher and higher. I sympathize a good 
deal with the eaglet caged up yonder. Now a kind 
friend, pitying its drooping condition, opens the 
cage door and lets it out. I see it leave its cage 
and turn its eye to the sun and to the mountain- 
tops. Its ruffled feathers begin to smooth down, 
and it raises its wings and shakes them for a mo- 
ment. I see it fly up into the air and poise itself 
on its wings. It looks back toward the cage and 
utters a scream, as much as to say, " Farewell, cage ; 
farewell, imprisonment and weary hours !" I see it 
fly higher and higher, until at last it steadies its 
wings just in sight, and I hear it scream again. It 
seem to say, " Farewell, earth and imprisonment and 
cage and dreary days." Higher and higher it as- 



Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. 189 

cends and sails aloft to light on the mountain top, 
free as air. Brethren, the soul of man, that has 
been ruffled by ten thousand cares, some of these 
days will look toward that blessed hope of God, 
plume its wings, and fly upward. And the higher 
we go earth shall hear our voices, growing the 
fainter, saying, " Farewell, cares, imprisonment, and 
earth ! " Higher and higher we shall go, until at 
last we fly off in a bee-line for the other world. 
Brethren, let us get above worldly care and sin and 
temptation, and let us strike a bee-line for that home 
beyond, where sin and suffering are felt no more. 
May God bless you all, and may you ponder over 
these words in the spirit in which they have been 
uttered. If you do not like any thing that has been 
said, and if you come and apologize, I will forgive 
you, for I never bear malice to any body in this 
world. 



Sermon X. 

LAW AND ORDER-HELP EACH OTHER. 

" And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season 
we shall reap if we faint not. — Gal. vi, 9. 

BRETHREN, I want to preach from two sides of 
this text to-night, one-half to you as Christians 
and the other half to you brethren — I mean what I 
say — who are not Christians. You are my brother, 
but I shall preach the first few minutes from this 
text to Christian people. 

" And let us not be weary in well doing, for in 
due season we shall reap, if we faint not." God 
says if we do n't weary in well doing, we shall reap. 
I trust that in thirty days from this good hour 
every Christian here can write " T. P." opposite 
this verse in the margin of his or her Bible — "tried 
and proven " to be true. God says if we would 
not grow weary in well doing we should reap— 
reap a harvest of husbands and wives and sons and 
daughters for garners in the sky. Now, brother, 
this is a declaration with a promise attached — if 
you won't grow weary in well-doing you shall reap 
a harvest. 

I wonder what that "well-doing" referred to 
in this verse is? I will drop back a few verses 
and find out. Brethren, first, well-doing in a 
Christian life is this : " Brethren, if a man be over- 
taken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such 
a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, 
190 



Help Each Othek. 191 

lest thou also be tempted." Thus I learn from the 
lesson before us that the first duty of every Chris- 
tian man is to ignore himself, and crucify himself, 
and live only for the good of others. We never 
have much trouble after we have gotten rid of our- 
selves. My biggest job is managing myself, and 
I M rather undertake to control and manage Cin- 
cinnati than to manage myself. 

I can get the police to help me manage Cincin- 
nati, if I can get them straight to start with. I can 
get the Law and Order League and the Committee 
of One Hundred, and get help from various other 
directions, to help me control this city. I'll tell 
you another thing : I hope when God blesses Cin- 
cinnati with another election — I refer not to any 
previous election, or to any man w T ho ever held the 
office of mayor — but I trust that the next mayor 
you have will enforce the laws of the city if he has 
to die in the ditch in his endeavor to keep it 
straight. I'll tell you another thing: If I were a 
citizen of Cincinnati I would die by the Law and 
Order League. I would stand up with the citizens 
of the Committee of One Hundred until my feet 
flew from under me. I would go into every thing 
and stay with every thing that looked towards law 
and order. Understand that? It is your only 
safety as a city; it is the safety of the commonwealth 
of each State, and the safety of municipal cor- 
porations — the enforcement of law. Law is made 
not for good citizens, but for bad citizens, and there 
isn't a law on the statute books of Ohio that is 
odious to law-abiding people. What do you say to 



192 Sermons and Sayings> 

that ? I am ready now and ready forever to die by 
the laws of my State, good or bad. I am branch- 
ing off from my text, but what I have said is Gospel 
just as much as any thing I could say. 

God bless you people of Cincinnati, and rally 
you round the code of your city, and the laws of 
your city, and help you to stand by them and to 
see them enforced, and if any fellow does n't like these 
laws let him emigrate — you have no use for him, 
nohow ! This is a free country. If he does n't 
want to stay in a law-abiding city, why, let him 
emigrate, and if you all have n't money enough to 
buy him a ticket, if he will write me a letter I '11 
furnish him a ticket, for the sake of the love I bear 
to you all. Law and order, righteousness, let it 
reign on earth, and let all good citizens stand by it. 
That's it! If I were mayor of this city next Sun- 
day and Monday, there would be a thousand fellows 
in your lock-ups, and station-houses, and jails, on 
Monday night sure. Put that down ! 

Every man in this town that opened his bar-room 
on Sunday I would put in jail, if I had to call out 
the militia of the city to help put him there. Every 
bar-room door that is flung open in Cincinnati on 
Sunday is against the law, and in direct opposition to 
the law of your city and of your State; and, brethren, 
in the name of God, let 's enforce the law, or let 's call 
our Legislature home, and quit paying them to go 
up there to Columbus and enact a set of rules and 
laws that they do n't intend to carry out. Abolish 
the Legislature, burn the code, or make up your 
mind to stand up for law and order. God bless 



Help Each Other. 193 

the Law and Order League and the Committee of 
One Hundred ! 

If there's a saloon-keeper in Cincinnati that 
doesn't like the way things are run, tell him to 
emigrate, demijohn and all — you would n't miss 
him ! You can well spare twenty-nine hundred 
saloon-keepers and beer-gardens, and then have one 
hundred of them left, and the Lord knows that's 
enough. A hundred saloons ought to do you, if 
you ain 't the greediest crowd I ever struck. If we 
can 't do any thing with law and order on these 
saloons, let's starve them out. I understand that a 
good many of them have got to that point now that 
they can 't settle their bills. They say they never 
saw business so dull in their line in their life. 
Thank God for dull business along on that line ! 

Brethren, stand by your Law and Order League, 
by your Committee of One Hundred, and by your 
mayor in the enforcement of the law, and not only 
stand by your mayor, but tell him if he doesn't pitch 
in and enforce the law he can never be elected dog- 
pelter in this town, much less mayor again. The 
mayor is n't the boss of the town. He 's the servant 
of every body and any body, and, brethren, let's 
make our servants do what we want them to do. 
That 's the way. 

Law and order ! Why, see what this little move- 
ment here has already done. You've shut up the 
theaters here on Sunday, and I '11 tell you, if you '11 
push the battle on you will do like the citizens of 
St. Joseph, Mo. "When I went there, an honest 

preacher, the pastor of a Church in that city, came 

17 



194 Sermoxs axd Sayings. 

to me and said: "Brother Jones, don't open your 
mouth about the liquor traffic here or they'll put 
dynamite under the house you sleep in and blow 
you u E ." " What?" said I. "They'll kill you be- 
fore twenty-four hours if you ever denounce the 
liquor traffic, and they'll do it with dynamite/' said 
the preacher, earnestly. " If they blow T me up with 
dynamite/' said I, "I'll get a fine momentum, and 
I'll keep on all the harder. The tendency of the 
flash of this thing is upward, and it'll give a fellow 
a good start. I like that." 

Well, out there in St. Joseph I turned my guns 
loose on that traffic, and in less than thirty days 
from the time I left there they had overhauled the 
180 bar-keepers, found 180 true bills against them, 
indicted them, brought them up before the court, 
and they walked up to the judge and took solemn 
oath that they'd never sell another drop of liquor 
on Sunday if the judge would only be light on them 
that time and let them off. They knew they were 
doing wrong, and they persisted in it until they 
were brought up sharply. Law and order has got 
to prevail in this city, and if it does, you're going 
to see another state of things in Cincinnati. You 
good people are in the majority. 

It is all a great big lie about the hoodlums run- 
ning this town. I know some of the best citizens 
of this city are Germans, and I have received let- 
ters while I have been here from German citizens 
that have brought joy to my heart. Thank God for 
every German in this city that is for law and order ! 
Thank God for every American here that is in favor 



Help Each Other. 195 

of law and order ! In this democratic country, I mean 
republican country, the majority rules. In a repub- 
lican form of government the majority always rules, 
and the good citizens of this town are in that majority ; 
and, now, let's come forward and dare to assert our- 
selves in favor of law and order and righteousness. 

Well, I must come to my text. What I have 
been saying is good gospel, and it will do your 
children good after you are dead and gone if you 
will follow that kind of gospel; and the Lord knows 
I did n't come to this city to get up a shout-and-go- 
round corn-stalk meeting, where they all shout and 
afterward go on with their devilment, but I came 
here to get up a Ten-Commandments revival, a 
Sermon-on-the-Mount revival, and to preach right- 
eousness among the people. 

I will tell you another thing; the responsive 
hearts and the responsive presence of the people 
here in this hall to the Gospel as it has been 
preached have convinced me that Ohio and Cin- 
cinnati are overwhelmingly in favor of law and 
order, and may God bless you for showing it. 

But, brethren, I must return to my text : " And 
let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due 
season we shall reap if we faint not." The first 
duty of every man is to ignore himself and his 
own purposes and desires and intentions, crucify 
himself and live only for the good of others. 
That's it. O, how I love to see a self-sacrificing 
man — a man that loves humanity better than he 
loves himself. I like that sort of a man. He is 
an honor to his race and a blessing to the world. 



196 Sermons and Sayings. 

We have a man down our way in Georgia ; 
he 's a little Methodist preacher on a circuit now. 
Whenever I w r alk into the presence of that man I 
think he's the largest man I ever looked at, and he 
just expands in my presence when I look in his 
face, and I get whittled down until I feel I 'm 
no bigger than a mole- hill beside a majestic 
mountain. Why does he look so large? Because, 
when I look into that face, I'm looking into the 
face of the most unselfish man I ever saw. He 
doesn't care one cent for himself. He doesn't 
live or do for himself, but every thought of his 
life, every act of his life is, "How can I help 
some one else ?" He 's the happiest man, and 
the most glorious being I ever looked at, and I 
trace it all to the one source, that he 's so supremely 
unselfish. He just lives for other people. Brother, 
you '11 never be worth any thing until you can get 
yourself down and get your foot squarely planted 
on yourself, and say, "'Now, you lie there. If you 
get up I'll mash your mouth for you." When you 
do that you get in a position where you can help 
some one else. Blessed be God, I have got myself 
out of the way, and have nothing to look after now 
but other people. There's nothing in the way now, 
and, with my whole self in the background, I have 
nothing to do but to live and act for others all the 
day long. 

This text says : " If a man be overtaken in a fault, 
ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the 
spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou 
also be tempted." Your first duty is to live for 



Help Each Other. 197 

your brother. I Ve often heard people say, " I have 
no time to look after other people. I 'm doing first- 
rate if I can get into heaven myself. I 'm in big 
luck if I can get there myself without looking after 
other people. " Brother, you Ve made a mistake 
here as long as eternity. Listen to me, if I just 
wanted to make sure of damnation I would just 
settle it, " I ; 11 never try to help any body else in 
this country. I will spend all my days helping 
myself." What is hell at last? It's the very 
quintessence of selfishness, and selfishness is hell, 
and there is not an element in hell that does not 
enter into selfishness; and the supremely selfish man 
has already lighted the fires of hell in his soul that 
shall burn forever and forever. A selfish man ! Just 
as I am unselfish I am lovable, and just as I am un- 
selfish I am a blessing to the world. Just as I am 
selfish I am unlovable and a curse to the world. 

" Live for myself ! " Why, what is it that makes 
a man sell whisky ? Selfishness ! What is it that 
makes a man gamble ? Selfishness ! What is it 
that makes a man steal ? Selfishness ! Do you 
catch the idea ? In all the devilment that people 
have ever done in this world there is a seed at the 
bottom of the tap root of the whole thing, and that 
seed is selfishness. All that is good on earth to- 
day grows in this soil we call unselfishness. Divest 
yourself, brother, of all selfishness, and strike out 
to do good for the world. 

I will tell you another thing. As Christian 
people we ought to join hands here now as a great 
army of Christians, and march to the front hand in 



198 Sermons and Sayings. 

hand, heart to heart, faith to faith, love to love; 
march straight along as Baptists, Methodists, Pres- 
byterians, Lutherans, and Christians of all denomi- 
nations. We must join hands and march to the 
front, and let us say to this grand army, "We will 
hang together, and stick together, and fight to- 
gether, and die together, and we will all go to 
heaven together, or we will all go to hell together. 
We will stick to one another world without end ! " 

There's many a preacher that has been unable 
to get up a successful meeting in his own Church, 
and if some other preacher gets up a big meeting 
in his Church, and four or five hundred souls are 
converted and brought to God, this poor preacher 
looks as if he'd been sick for six months; he just 
goes drooping about. I don't mean any Cincinnati 
preacher — I mean a Georgia preacher. I have seen 
them. They were so glad their brother preacher 
was having such a successful revival that it was 
like to have killed them, they just fell off pounds 
and pounds. I mean these Georgia preachers — I 
have n't any reference to any Cincinnati preachers. 
I have seen that the case with a preacher; he 
couldn't be happy over another preacher's revival 
to save his life. 

It takes a good deal of religion for some pastors 
to stand by and see the pastor of another Church 
having such a big time with a revival. It takes 
more religion there than anywhere else in the world. 
It does that! I have been along there. I am a 
human being, and all of us preachers are human 
beings. Brethren, I want to see the day come when 



Help Each Other. 199 

you will rejoice in every good act, for there never 
was a revival in this town that did n't help every 
Church in the town, if they put themselves in a right 
attitude towards it. Every revival in any Church 
in this city, no matter if not more than five hun- 
dred are out, will do good to every other Church, if 
they put themselves in a right attitude to the work 
of Christ. 

If I never had saved a soul in the world, and 
the Lord allows me in heaven with the workers that 
did save the souls, I 'd stand and shout hosannas 
over the work of the others. It takes a good deal 
of religion to do that. We want religion enough 
to stand by and enjoy another fellow's doing what 
we tried, but were unable to do ourselves. It takes 
one hundred and eighty pounds of grace to the square 
inch right there to let me crow over and enjoy an- 
other man doing a thing that I could n't do myself. 

I have known preachers — Georgia preachers, you 
know — to try for two or three years to get up a big 
revival in their Church, and they could n't get up 
any, and then they lammed in and preached hard 
against revivals. They tried to have them them- 
selves and couldn't, and then they just lammed in 
and preached as hard against them as they could. 
Lord, have mercy on selfish preachers ! If God will 
take all the selfishness out of the hearts of all the 
preachers, myself as well as others, we will be in a 
position to lead the ranks of God into the belching 
mouths of the cannons of the devil and run him 
back into his citadel and bombard it until we run 
him out and capture this world for Christ. 



200 Sermons and Sayings. 

There are preachers in this town that have n't 
been in this hall at all ; and mark what I tell you. 
The preachers of this city that have stood aloof — I 
want them to hear this, I hope it will do them 
good — when they saw God was with it and saving 
souls, and yet kept away, will have to make out 
that a clear case of insanity was upon them during 
these meetings or go to hell, in my candid judg- 
ment. I do n't care, brother, if he is your pastor 
and does rack around to see you every week, and 
talk with you on religion. I tell you when 
God Almighty's cannon and musketry begin to 
roar, every loyal citizen will rush to the front and 
help fight the battles. If your pastor, brother, has 
been hanging back, you tell him he ought to go 
before a jury and be tried for insanity, and carry a 
good certificate with him to the judgment, for he'll 
need it. 

Selfishness ! Good Lord take the selfishness out 
of our preachers and out of our Churches, and then 
we'll win this world to Christ. We're not run- 
ning this thing for ourselves, but running it for 
Christ. 

Now, suppose an insurance company had a hun- 
dred agencies and agents in this town and they 
were to pull against one another, undercut one an- 
other, as the Churches pull against and undercut 
one another. Let a disaffected member get mad at 
one Church here because the preacher raked him 
about progressive euchre, and leave, another Church 
will say, " Come, live with us." All the same 
Church, all agents for the same house and com- 



Help Each Other. 201 

promising and cutting rates! Why, there isn't an 
insurance company in America that wouldn't send 
their inspector of agencies out here and discharge 
every agent in the town if they ran on that schedule. 

Selfishness is the curse of the world, and unsel- 
fishness is a blessing to the world. You have as 
unselfish preachers in this town as walk the face of 
the earth. You have the others too ; I never call 
any names, but every fellow knows his number. If 
this cap fits any preacher in this house let him wear it. 
If it doesn't fit you throw it away and get a better 
one. People say I arrogate a great deal to my- 
self. But I do not intend to take any thing to 
myself. I do n't want any praise from any body. 
I do n't care what you think of me so long as you 
think well of my Savior and do what he wants 
you to do. There are no selfish aims or ambitions 
to be gained in this fight, and God has blessed me 
in proportion as I have been unselfish. I don't 
want any praise; as I said before, I'd just as soon 
you'd throw mud on me as praise me. Brethren, 
with an unselfish spirit, let's join hands and march 
on to glory and to God with this city. 

In St. Joseph, Mo., those brothers gathered and 
worked and worked for weeks together, and there 
they are to-day with more than a thousand souls 
that they reaped since the union revival closed. 
And now, brother, here is a harvest-field of one 
hundred and fifty thousand souls away from Christ; 
and I hope every pastor will call his Church to- 
gether on Sunday at 11 o'clock, and give them the 
plan of the battle, and tell them what he expects 



202 Sermons and Sayings. 

them to do. And brother and sister in Christ, if 
you never did a faithful month's work for God in 
your life, and you never intended to do one month's 
work, you tell your pastor next Sunday morning at 
11 o'clock: "Brother, put me down in the list of 
the soldiers that w T ill go in to conquer or to die." 
And if you will do that, in less than six weeks 
from to-day I will show you fifty thousand souls 
converted to God and added to the Churches. The 
doors are wide open. O, let us fight this old world 
and get in the rear of this old world, and drive 
them into the kingdom of God, and there is noth- 
ing else here to do. And brother, let us go with 
unselfishness into this fight, and all meet and pray 
together, and then they will scatter out to the dif- 
ferent Churches in the city, and save this town 
from death and hell. 

I will tell you another thing. Every man of 
righteousness ought to join in the battle. And you 
that are not members of the Church, surrender your 
heart to God to-night, and Sunday morning at 11 
o'clock come in and join some Christian Church, 
and be one of the most valiant soldiers of the Cross 
for the next five or six weeks in bringing to Christ 
those around you. If a man is trying to help others 
to Christ, it is the best evidence that he has got it 
himself Go to work, and go to work for Christ 
now. As a good man said, " I will pay the balance 
in good works as long as I live. I am going to 
devote my life to God and humanity." 

I will tell you another thing. You can't be too 
patient toward one another. These new converts 



Help Each Other. 203 

will need your care and mercy and good will and 
help every day — mark that. I want to say, I fre- 
quently hear this question: Do Jones's converts 
stick? Now, let me tell you, I never run any in- 
surance on them at all ; no guaranty. I do n't run 
any guaranty on my converts. They may, every 
one, be in the penitentiary before this time next 
year. But I will tell you one thing, every convert 
of these meetings will average up with the Churches 
they join. Do you hear that? Average up with 
the Churches they join. A woman said to me once, 
" Brother Jones, we had a revival here two years 
ago, and seventy-five joined our Church, and now 
where are they, those seventy-five?" She said, "I 
do n't believe i-n revivals." I said, " Sister, ain't 
those seventy-five here in town?" She said, " Yes, 
but I never see much of them. Why," she says, 
" some of those converts are getting drunk." Said 
I, "Ain't some of your old converts getting drunk." 
"Well, yes," said she; "but some of the new con- 
verts do n't come to meeting." " Do n't some of 
your old ones stay away, too ?" said I. " Well, yes," 
said she ; " and some of the new converts play cards." 
Said I, " Do n't some of the old ones play cards, 
too?" "Well, yes." Said I, " Sister, the new con- 
verts will live right up with the old ones; some of 
the new ones are getting drunk, so are some of the 
old ones ; some of the new ones play cards, so do 
some of the old ones ; some of the new ones are 
staying away from meeting, so are some of the old 
ones." 

It is not so much the weight and bigness of the 



204 Sermons and Sayings. 

infant as it is what sort of a mother has God given 
it to take care of it ! There is many a Church in 
this country — O, what mothers, what mothers, what 
mothers they are ! Ah, me, there is that mother 
Avith her sweet, beautiful babe yonder who cares 
nothing for it ! She keeps it in the nursery, and the 
mother does n't see it once a week or once a month. 
O, such a mother is n't worthy of a child ! She 
isn't worthy the name of mother. The Church in 
this town is a mother to its converts, and there 's 
many a Church in this town that cares nothing for 
its converts. They hire a preacher to look after the 
Church, hire him by the month, and pay him by the 
month to look after the babies, and I tell you there 
is a sight of them to look after. I would rather 
preach three hundred and sixty-five sermons every 
year for one of your Churches, than to look after the 
babies for one week. It 's a solid fact. It is whine 
and whine, and cry and cry; and soothing syrup 
and soothing syrup. How many bottles do you 
reckon have been used in this Church? I suppose 
you can go into the closet and find hundreds of 
empty bottles of soothing syrup. And before the 
pastor can get one fellow quiet, another breaks out, 
and it is running with the spoon and bottle all the 
time. 

Obliged to do it ! It is n't right the way we do 
with our preachers ; it is not right before God. I told 
them the other day up at Trinity, that in some of 
these Churches the whole Church will be in the 
wagon, every single member of the Church up in the 
wagon, some laughing, some cursing, some drinking, 



Help Each Other. 205 

some playing cards, some shouting, but the whole 
lot up in the wagon, and the poor little old preacher 
out in the shafts trying to pull the whole thing 
along. There goes the poor fellow under this big 
load, just tired to death, and here some fellow 
wipes his mouth after taking a drink, and says, 
" Jab him up a bit. " I say, get out of that wagon 
and catch hold and pull or push at once. O, 
brethren of the ministry, God bless you, hitch up 
that crowd to the wagon, and get up on the spring 
seat and drive a w T hile ! 

It is a heap easier for you all to pull the 
preacher, than it is for the preacher to pull you. 
Let us swap about with him ; let us all get out of 
the wagon a while. And about the only time you 
get out at all is when you go down a steep hill, and 
then you get out and push. The Lord have mercy 
on that sort of a man. Live for others, work for 
others. Your preacher needs unselfish members. 
God needs unselfish members. The world needs 
you every day. The poor, weak brethren in the 
Church need you every day. 

Now this incident. I read it a few months ago. 
It was related by Bishop Marvin. He said that in 
one of his charges once, when he was a young 
pastor, he commenced a meeting on his circuit at a 
church, and he said at that church there were from 
two to three hundred members. He commenced 
preaching, but the Church didn't get aroused. And 
he said when he had preached about two weeks, 
seventy-five had professed conversion and joined 
the Church, but the Church never got w r aked up. 



206 Sermons and Sayings. 

And before the first day of next January — this was 
in July — before the first day of January seventy- 
two of the seventy-five had gone back to the world, 
just as bad or worse than they were before. He 
said right over there on that same circuit there 
was another Church, the most faithful Church he 
ever saw, with two of the most faithful class- 
leaders he ever knew. He commenced his meet- 
ings there, and the Church was on fire with love to 
God and man. And that is pure unselfishness, love 
to God and love to man. And he said while preach- 
ing at that church one night, he noticed an old 
blacksmith, dingy, black, and dirty, come in and 
take a back seat ; and after the service one of the 
class-leaders came up and said : " Brother Marvin, 
did you see that old dingy, dirty blacksmith take his 
seat?" "Yea," he said. "Well," said the class- 
leader, " he is the worst old drunkard this country 
possesses, and I was glad to see him here." The 
bishop said: "You ought to invite him back 
again." " Well, I tried, but he was gone before I 
could get to him." "Well," said Marvin, "you 
must go to see him." 

Next morning, bright and early, the class- 
leader rode up to the blacksmith's house and said 
to him: "I am mighty glad I saw you at the 
church last night, and I want you to come again." 
Said he: "I love to hear that man preach; he 
caught hold of my heart; but," said he, "look at 
these ragged clothes and this debauched body; and 
my poor wife in rags, and my children in their 
desolation ; we can ? t go to Church ; got nothing to 



Help Each Other. 207 

wear." "Ah," said the class-leader, "I know that; 
but I am going to bring you a suit a-piece for the 
whole family, and come with my wagon and take 
you to Church." He did. On that night the 
blacksmith, his wife, and two oldest children were 
there, and knelt at the altar. The next thing, the 
blacksmith and his wife and two oldest children were 
converted and joined the Church. And when the 
blacksmith walked up and joined the Church, the 
sinners out in the back of the house said : " The 
first time that old blacksmith goes to town and 
gets drunk they'll lose him." 

The meeting closed. They got him to pray in 
his family ; they carried him work to his shop, and 
got the neighbors to patronize him, and kept him 
busy at his trade; and before two years he had 
bought himself a nice cottage and paid for all his 
tools, and was one of the respected men of the com- 
munity. About six months after these two years 
were over the Western fever broke out in the set- 
tlement. People all took a notion to go West, and 
the blacksmith said he thought he would go. And 
the class-leaders said : " Sir, we do n't want you to 
live out West; the company is too bad, and we 
want you to stay here with us, with your family, 
and go to heaven with us. " He said : " I can do 
better with my children out there. " They could n't 
persuade him, and in a short time a small company 
started out West with about forty wagons, and the 
blacksmith and his family with them. They crossed 
the Mississippi River, and one of the company wrote 
back, and among other things said : " We gather at 



208 Sermons and Sayings. 

the blacksmith's wagon, and he reads his Bible and 
offers family prayer with all the company every 
night and morning. " And when they got the next 
letter they had arrived at their place of destination, 
and they were almost afraid to open it, but it said : 
" The blacksmith has gone right into Church with all 
his family and gone right to duty." Every letter 
they got said, "He is faithful to God and duty." 

About six months after he went out one of the 
class-leaders one morning got a letter with a black 
margin all around the envelope, and he opened it, 
and it was from the wife, bathed in her tears, and 
it read : " My husband died shouting happy last night, 
and went home to heaven, and he told me to write 
back to his faithful class-leaders and tell them an- 
other one is saved by grace and gone home to God." 

O, for that spirit of religion in this country ! 
That is what we want. O, my brethren, let us 
stand by one another; let us die by one another! 
There is too much doubt and hesitancy on the mind 
of the people. I recollect when Sam Small was 
converted. O, how r dissipated that man was ! He 
told you all himself. I don't go behind his back; 
I have said all before his face that I say here, and 
I am no prouder of my precious child, or of my 
wife, than I am of Sam Small. Thank God for the 
grape that brought him to me. When Sam Small 
was converted to God I heard him talk once, and 
my wife and friends said, "Sam Small has got 
religion, just as sure as Sam Jones has got it; he 
has got it, certain." He has. He has got the 
right aim. 



Help Each Other. 209 

The first thing I did, I threw my arms around 
him and said, " Brother, come and go to work with 
me in the cause of God." The wise brethren 
walked up and said, " Brother Sam, you had better 
be very particular; if his foot were to happen to 
slip it would be death on you, and you had better 
be mighty particular now." " If he falls down," 
said I, "he shall fall on me; I will hold him up, 
and stand by him until I die myself." And thank 
God Almighty, he never fell on me. I have never 
held up a pound for him, but I have got so now, 
thank God, I can lean on him, and he is help- 
ing to hold me up. Glory be to God for the 
spirit that will throw his arms around a poor fellow 
struggling, and help him on to God ! 

I never see a poor drunken man but I want to 
throw my arms around him and keep them there. 
I never see a poor, weak brother come up that I 
don't wish I had nothing else in the world to do 
but to keep him out of temptations and keep him 
straight until he gets firmly on his feet. They 
need your nursing; they need your help. But O, 
what is the use of bringing them in and nobody 
taking care of them? Take hold of souls and 
bring them through to God. You who are spir- 
itual go and love him, stand by him, do your best 
for him. 

I learned how to love a man once by a game of 
town ball. When I was a boy w r e used to play 
town ball. But I will tell you what, if I had a 
dog and he were to go out and look at a game of 

base ball an hour, and then come back in my yard, 

18 



210 Sermons and Sayings. 

I would go out and kill him, I would. None of 
your base ball in mine. There is not a more cor- 
rupting thing this side of hell than base ball. Now, 
put that down. They all thought I had forgotten 
that. I never have had any use for it. The idea of 
a great big young buck twenty-five years old run- 
ning all over creation for a ball. If your mother 
wanted you to cut a stick of wood she could n 't get 
you to do it to save her life, but you dress up in a 
fool's garb and run after a ball, the hottest day, 
until your tongue lolls out, you fool you? That 
isn't all. It is one of the finest fields for gambling 
in America. And that is not all. I would n 't 
w r ipe my feet on any crowd that would go out and 
play base ball on the Sabbath. Those are my sen- 
timents. I could n 't put it in any more concise 
way than that. I don't know whether you agree 
with me or not; but you understand me, I reckon, 
do n't you? I will let my boy play ball until he 
is ten years old, but after he is fifteen years old I 
believe I will wear him out with work if I catch 
him at such foolishness as that. 

Men, stand by one another and help one another, 
and when one falls down let us catch him imme- 
diately and straighten him up, and then call to 
other brothers, and say, " One of you get under this 
arm and one under the other," and let him hobble 
on toward glory, and when he gets into heaven his 
crutches will be there too, blessed be God. It is 
about the only way you will ever get to heaven. It 
is to go there as a crutch under some poor fellow's 
arm, and the only way he will get there is for you 



Help Each Other. 211 

to play the crutch for him. O, thank God, the 
crutches and the lame have to go in together, and 
they rejoice together in the name of the good work. 

Stand by one another ! Help one another ! Do 
your duty toward one another ! And when a poor 
fellow falls down do not look at him and say : "Just 
look at that brother now; he joined the Church 
during the revival, and now is drunk; look at him!" 
There is the poor, fallen brother in the ditch; he 
is drunk, beastly drunk; and here are two brethren 
standing off, looking at him and saying, one to the 
other, " I told our pastor not to take him into the 
Church." Do you want to know whom God thinks 
more of, that one lying there, or these two ? That 
sot lying in the gutter is better than a hundred such 
in the sight of God. That poor, drunken fellow is 
better in the sight of God than these Pharisees that 
will see their brother sink and then say, " Just look 
at him." A brother would run to him and drag 
him out of the ditch and stand by him and say, 
" You have done wrong, so have I, and we will 
quit now and try to live right." 

There is many a poor fellow who has gone to 
hell from this community that Christian people 
never made one effort to save from death and hell. 
They just go to the dogs all around us. 

I have talked more than an hour, and now I 
am going to close with just these words. I never 
preached on the subject that I started out on in 
my life, and I have gone off in this direction, and 
I hope God will use it to your good. 

Now a word or two to you men out of the 



212 Sermons and Sayings. 

Church. Let me say this to you : There is a great 
responsibility on you. You have seen rich men in 
the community ; you have seen a rich man and 
you have seen all the poor people turn away ; and 
you hear the poor people talk and say : " That 
rich man doesn't care any thing about us poor 
folks." The truth of the business is, these poor 
people imagine that that rich man does n't care any 
thing about them ; and when they see him they 
treat him coolly, and he does the same, for the poor 
fellows do n't know what else to do. Now you 
have imagined many a time the Church did n't care 
any thing about you and that these people did n't 
want to have any thing to do with you, and you 
have turned away yourself. Turn to the Church 
and say, "Give me help and assistance," and they 
will take you by the hand and take you to glory 
and to God. When you do that once, men of the 
world, you will be on the right direction. 



SAYINGS. 

The Best Pay. — I received this in the con- 
tribution basket last night, and when this much 
comes to me it seems as if there can 't be any thing 
better than this to follow. This little note was in 
an envelope in the basket last night; and it seems 
as if this little scrap of paper pays me for every 
lick I have struck : " Brother Jones, I am in your 
debt, sir, as follows : For quitting and swearing 
off drinking, $100,000; for quitting and swearing 



Help Each Other. 213 

off from swearing, $100,000; for quitting all my 
meanness, $1,000,000; for learning to love our dear 
Lord better than life, $3,000,000,000. Credit, $1. 
I hope to be able to pay the balance by doing good 
the rest of my days." 

Brethren, here 's really the pay in this service. 
Thank God for the privilege of doing good. That 's 
one reason why I never asked you, brethren, for a 
cent of money, and I told you I did n't want a cent, 
for I knew God would pay me, and here 's the pay. 
If this man feels that way, how do you reckon his 
precious wife and children feel about it ? Glory to 
God for bringing heaven to one home in Cincinnati! 
Thank God for every home that has been blessed! 

I thought once to-day I would have all the com- 
munications I got in the basket last night compiled 
into a little pamphlet, for it's rich reading. One 
dear woman writes: "I have n't a cent in the world 
to give, but I want to tell you that you have brought 
me to the dear Savior, and he is mine, and I am 
happy in his love." I tell you in heaven we will 
be paid, when money and dollars and cents have 
been long ago forgotten. Thank God for pay that 
I can cross the river with — I do n't mean the Ohio 
River, but the river of death to the city of God ! 



Sermon XL 

GODLINESSAND LIPE-GLORYANDVIRTUE. 

"According as his divine power hath given unto us all 
things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the 
knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. 
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious 
promises ; that by these ye might' be partakers of the divine 
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world 
through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to 
your faith virtue ; and to virtue knowledge ; and to knowl- 
edge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to 
patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; 
and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in 
you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be bar- 
ren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and can not see 
afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old 
sins." — 2 Peter, i, 3-9. 

LET us notice two or three of these verses as we 
go along. " According as his divine power 
hath given unto us all things that pertain to life 
and godliness." Did you ever face this fact in your 
religious experience that there may be a thousand 
reasons why some men do not succeed at law; that 
there may be a thousand reasons why some men fail 
in merchandising; that there may be a thousand 
reasons why some men fail in agriculture; but do 
you ever meet this fact, that there is no reason in 
heaven or earth or hell why any man should fail to 
be an earnest, faithful Christian ? There are reasons 
why men fail in every other profession and every 
other calling, but there are no reasons why any 
214 



Godliness and Life. 215 

man should fail in being a successful Christian. If 
I am not a successful, happy, earnest Christian, it is 
not the deviPs fault; it is not the fault of the grace 
of Cod ; it is not the fault of this book ; it is not 
the fault of any thing without ; but my trouble lies 
deep within. 

" All things that pertain to life and godliness." 
Let us face this fact a moment. If I am a good 
man, I am a good man on purpose. If I am not a 
good man I am purposely not a good man. Xo- 
body ever was religious by accident. The grace of 
God never made any man religious. The Bible 
never made any man religious. Preaching never 
made any man religious. These are all grand in- 
strumentalities in the hands of God, but no man 
was, and no man ever will be, religious until he 
settles it once uncompromisingly and forever : " I 
will be religious, whether I am any thing else or 
not. If I fail in every thing else, I will succeed in 
this. If I do n *t do -any thing else, I w r ill do this." 
With the great one who succeeded in the highest 
sense — St. Paul — he says, "This one thing I do." 
Suppose I succeed. I am a success for all worlds. 
Suppose I fail in this and succeed in every thing 
else. I am but a beggar ! 

The next verse reads : " Whereby are given unto 
us exceeding great and precious promises, that by 
these ye might be made partakers of the divine na- 
ture, having escaped the corruption that is in the 
world through lust." What does that mean — 
" Being made partakers of the divine nature? " This 
is, perhaps, one of the plainest, clearest statements 



216 Sermons and Sayings. 

of the beginning of a Christian life. Here is a man 
who has been, perhaps, intemperate at times, worldly- 
minded, covetous, wicked, wayward, godless, and 
now comes a pivotal moment in his life. Perhaps it 
is the death of his precious wife ; perhaps it is the 
burial of one of his sweet children ; perhaps it was 
an earnest sermon; but some time something some- 
where touched his heart and touched his conscience, 
and he says to himself: " I believe I '11 decide 
upon a better life. I ought to be good. I'm 
sorry I'm bad. I would give the rest of my days 
to nobler, better things." He eschews evil and 
learns to do good, and on and on he walks away 
from evil and walks into good, and may be six 
months later there is a happy, joyous, Christian ex- 
perience brought about. When was that man made 
a partaker of the divine nature ? It was in that 
moment away back yonder when he said : " I am 
wrong, I ought to get right;" that moment when 
he 'said: " I 'm bad; I'm sorry I am. I have 
offended God and lived in sin. I would seek 
the favor of God and live in righteousness. " It 
was away back there that that man was made par- 
taker of the divine nature, and he yielded to and 
responded to and fostered and nursed that divine 
touch, until, by and by, the divine seed implanted 
in his nature, budded and blossomed into a glo- 
rious religious experience. 

I used to think that if God could n't get all the 
heart he would n't take any. I made a mistake 
there. Brother, if you will surrender God an inch 
of space in your heart to-night, God will occupy 



Godliness and Life. 217 

that space, and God will do for a man and do in a 
man just in proportion as God can get hand-room 
and foot-room to work. And God will work that 
space so well and the results will be so glorious 
that if we will surrender every space and every 
place, God will go on with the conquest until he 
shall possess the whole. But if you draw the line 
any way and say to God, " Thus far thou shalt go 
and no farther," then God will surrender to you the 
space he already occupied, and the last state of that 
man shall be worse than the first. 

" According as his divine power hath . . . 
made us partakers of the divine nature." Is there 
a man here to-night, twenty or thirty or forty years 
old, that down in his conscience is saying, " I am 
bad ; I am sorry for it. I ought to be good. I want 
to be good?" The good Spirit of all grace has 
touched that man's heart. And now, brother, you 
foster and cherish and nurse and perpetuate that 
desire in your soul until it shall spring up and 
develop into a burning, hungering and thirsting 
after righteousness. Do n't despise the day of small 
things. A great many in the Church and a great 
many out of the Church are waiting for some won- 
derful transformation. They are waiting for some 
wonderful something to possess them. A great 
many of us are alike. We want such an experience 
as that of St. Paul, for instance. Well, St. Paul 
was a wonderful man. He was big game, and God 
used big ammunition and big guns on big game, 
understand that. Paul — it took the biggest cannon 
of heaven, loaded to its muzzle, to bring him 

19 



218 Sermons and Sayings. 

down, and it brought him down to surrender. And 
there 's many a little fellow in this country want- 
ing God to shoot off that same gun at him. And 
if God did, it would n't leave a grease spot of you, 
you poor little fellow. God is too merciful to turn 
such guns loose on your sort. God never shoots 
cannon balls at snow-birds. Do n't forget that. 
Fancy a snow-bird perched on the twig of a per- 
simmon bush and saying, " I '11 never move until 
a cannon ball hits me " — and that will be his last 
move. 

a According as his divine power hath given us 
all things that pertain to life and godliness, through 
the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory 
and virtue; whereby are given unto us exceeding 
great and precious promises." O brother! how 
divine the truth that God always promises to 
help a man to be good if he wants to be good ! 
And my theology at last, brother, is in but two 
sentences. God can not arbitrarily make any man 
a good man. If he could, we would all be good, 
for he wills that we should all be moral. The devil 
can not arbitrarily make any man a bad man. If 
he could, we would all be bad. My theology is 
wrapped in these two declarations : If you want to 
be good, say so, and God will help you ; if you 
want to be bad, say so, and the devil will help you. 
I needn't tell you that. You know that. 

" Exceeding great and precious promises" — prom- 
ises that come down to me, and reach out to me, 
and overshadow me, and that are like a great gran- 
ite rock under my feet as I walk on the promises 



Godliness and Life. 213 

of God. There is no bankrupting the soul that car- 
ries in its consciousness the promises of God. Now, 
brother, let us take a sensible view of this. Let's 
you and I not wait for any thing, but let 's you and 
I decide to-night. "Yes, I want to be good, and 
I decide to be good." And that is n't all. " I be- 
lieve God will help me, and I'm going to start out 
on that line to-night." The greatest curse of men is, 
they are going to be good after a while. "I will 
be good next year," and so on. Well, if you and 
I are ever going to be good, it is time we begun. 
And if we are never going to be good, let 's say so 
and settle it forever. 

Now after a start like this, he says: "And be- 
sides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith 
virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowl- 
edge temperance, and to temperance patience, and 
to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly 
kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For, 
if these things be in you and abound, they make 
you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful 
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But 
he that lacketh these things — " Listen ! " He that 
lacketh these things is blind and can not see 
afar off." 

You see the seeming contradictory senses in 
which these words are put, u Is blind and can not 
see afar off." He can see all around him. He can 
see stocks and bonds and money, and worldly goods 
and fruits. Ah me ! He is what you might call a 
near-sighted Christian. He can see every thing 
about him; he can see the profits and losses of 



220 Sermons and Sayings. 

each clay's business ; he can see his mansion and see 
his town property and see his railroad interests, and 
so on, right about him, but he "is blind and can not 
see afar off." Ah me, brother! It is these long- 
sighted fellows that win. This one that looks 
ahead into eternity can say, "My treasure is laid 
up at the right hand of God, where neither moth 
nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not 
break through and steal." 

You can tell a near-sighted man. Nothing out 
of the range of his sight excites him or moves 
him. That man standing by you there — you see a 
cyclone coming, but he stands there without a mo- 
tion of his body. These men that can not see into 
eternity, and can not see beyond, are never excited. 
They call these other men " religious enthusiasts." 
And I declare to you, to-night, we have got a great 
many near-sighted Methodists and Baptists and 
Presbyterians and Episcopalians, and so forth, in 
this city. That father, there, can see his boy going 
in business, and can see him succeed in business; 
but how about his boy's soul and eternity? He 
can 't see any thing there. That mother can see 
her daughter projected into society, and see her 
marry well, and see her move off to herself and 
start well in life; but how about her daughter's 
eternal's interests? She can't see any thing there. 
O, the near-sighted people of this world. They are 
"blind and can not see afar off." 

And listen : " And have forgotten that they were 
purged from their old sins." There is not an old 
backslider in this town but what, when you see him 



Godliness and Life. 221 

down, will say, " I sort of doubt whether I ever was 
religious. I don't think I ever was a Christian." 
Forgets, you see ! There is not a miserable back- 
slidden person in this community to-night, but 
what, when you bring him square to the issue, will 
tell you, "Well, I thought I was converted then, 
and I thought I enjoyed religion, but I think now 
I was mistaken." " Think now I was mistaken !" 
Have n't you heard that all around? "I'm afraid 
I was mistaken." Poor fellow ! He has got into 
things that have so engrossed him, and so taken 
up his time, he has forgotten all about how 
good God was to him, and how God blessed him, 
and how he had lived for months, and may be 
years. " Blind and can not see afar off, and hath 
forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." 
I do n't know what you '11 do with all this sort un- 
less you turn them over to us Methodists. 

I want to tell you of another thing right along 
at this point. There are ten, there are twenty 
warnings in the Word of God to Christian people, 
lest they fall, lest they go back — there are twenty 
warnings to Christian people to hold fast their pro- 
fession of faith, to where there is one call to the 
sinner to come to repentance. And now what do 
you say ? It looks as if there is danger along that 
line. Now, "giving all diligence." O me! A 
religious life is a pious life, it is an earnest life, it 
is an energetic life, it is a life in which every man 
ought to lay aside every weakness and the sin that 
doth so easily beset him and run with patience the 
race set before him. 



222 Sermons and Sayings. 

An energetic, an enthusiastic life! Ah me ! It 
is a life like that of St. Paul. When once convinced, 
and when once he swore his allegiance to Christ, 
from that moment until he passed out of the world 
he was a grand rolling ball of fire all through his 
life and all through earth. O brother! " Giving 
all diligence !" 

I can tell when a man is in earnest. If you let 
me watch the first three months of that young law- 
yer's life after he has just chosen the profession of 
law — if you let me watch the first three months of 
his life after he makes his profession, chooses his 
profession — I do n't need any tongue of the prophet 
to tell me whether he means business or not. I 
see that young fellow choosing the profession of law, 
and if, instead of poring over Blackstone and Green- 
leaf and all the law books, I see him now spending 
his evenings with the girls and loitering around the 
street, I don't need any tongue of the prophet to 
say that fellow will never get but one case and the 
sheriff will get his client. 

I see a young fellow starting out to be a doctor. 
Let me watch him three months. I see him loiter- 
ing away his time and spending his evenings in 
parties, and paying no attention to physiology and 
anatomy and hygiene and so forth. I turn around 
and I can see what he will be. He will have 
but one patient, and the undertaker will get him 
next day, and that will wind up his practice. 

I see a preacher starting out who proposes to be 
a preacher ; he never looks in a book, never thinks, 
never studies ; he is going to open his mouth and 



Godliness and Life. 223 

let the Lord fill it. Well, the Lord does fill a fel- 
low's mouth as soon as he opens it, but he fills it 
with air. I have listened to some men preaching 
an hour, and they didn't say one thing in the 
hour, and I got perfectly interested seeing how the 
fellow could dodge every idea in the universe and 
talk an hour. I just watched him. 

I see a farmer the first three months of the year 
who, instead of cleaning out his fence corners and 
repairing his fences and turning his land and being 
just as energetic and active in January as he is in 
May, is loitering around doing nothing. I don't 
need any tongue of the prophet to tell how he'll 
come out farming. I have seen him down South. 
I have watched him, and I have told him before he 
started in how he would come out, too. Said I: 
"I'll tell you what will happen to you. You'll 
buy your corn from the West; you put in forty 
acres to the old mule, and before the year is out 
the grass will have your cotton and the birds will 
have your wheat, and the buzzards will have your 
mule and the sheriff will have you, and that's 
about where you will wind up." 

But, on the other hand, when I see a young 
lawyer poring over his books day after day and 
night after night, burning the midnight oil, and I 
see the blood fading from his cheek, and his eye 
growing brighter every day, I don't need the tongue 
of the prophet to tell me there will be one day a 
judge of the Supreme Court, that there will be one 
day one of the finest lawyers that America ever 
produced. And so on. 



224 Sermons and Sayings. 

You let me watch a fellow the first three months 
after he joins the Church, I can tell you whether he 
means business or not. I see him begin to lay him- 
self out of his prayer-meetings and begin to neglect 
his duty, and begin to think that he has got more 
religion than he wants, and he '11 run the rule of 
subtraction or division through it instead of the rule 
of addition, and I know just about where he '11 land. 
You are there now. When I see a man come into 
the Church of God Almighty and say: " I ? m going 
to take every chance for the good world ; I 'm going 
to get all the good out of every thing that comes 
my way or comes within a mile of me or ten miles 
of me/' and I see him do his best and at his place 
and drawing in from all sources in heaven and 
earth, and see him as he begins to move forward 
in his Church and to be one of the pillars in 
Church — I do n't mean p-i-1-l-o-w-s ; you 've got a 
great many of that sort of pillars in your Churches 
in this town, good old cases for others to crawl in 
and lay their heads on and go to sleep ; that sort of 
pillows, downy fellows ! — I know he is "giving all 
diligence." 

I will tell you what surprises me sometimes. 
See old Brother A. go down Monday morning to do 
his business, and he puts all his blood and energy 
and money and muscles and tact into his business 
from Monday morning until Saturday night, and all 
the energies of soul and body are bent on pushing 
his business forward, and he is taking every turn, 
and using every means to do this; and then he 
comes to his neglected Church on Sunday morning 



Godliness and Life. 225 

and takes his seat and sits there as quiet as the 
dead, and when the service is over he goes around 
into the study and says to the preacher, " What in 
the world's the matter with the Church? I can't 
see to save my life. She 's not moving any. " If 
that old fellow runs his business three months as he 
does the Church the sheriff would wind him up 
and settle him in bankruptcy. Talk about a man 
running his business as we do our Churches in this 
country ! Ah, me ! There is not a man in this 
house that does not know his business will go into 
bankruptcy and ruin if he devotes no more time to 
it than we devote to the Church of God. 

I '11 tell you what I have got a contempt for in 
the highest sense — a fellow that is a first-class lawyer 
and a tenth-rate Methodist ; he is the best lawyer in 
town, but the worst member of his Church. Now, 
sir, that sort of a fellow is n't worth killing in any 
country in heaven or earth. I'll tell you another 
fellow that I have got a contempt for. It is this 
fellow: he is the best merchant in this city and he 
is about a fifteenth-rate Baptist. There is another 
fellow — the best doctor in this city, and as a Presby- 
terian he is the deadest failure in the town. Now, 
if a fellow is of no account anywhere, the Lord can 
sort of put up with his being of no account in the 
Church ; but if he is a first-class any thing out of the 
Church, God wants him to be a first-class every 
thing in the Church, do n 't you see ? 

Is n't it strange, brethren — -now I do n't single 
out any class in this world and say aught against 
them — but is n 't it strange how few really pious law- 



226 Sermons and Sayings. 

yers we have in this country ? Is n 't it strange ? It 
takes less earnest effort to be a first-class Christian 
than it does to be a first-class lawyer, and I 'd rather 
be one first-class Christian than to be every first- 
class lawyer in the universe. 

You take the physicians of the community. One 
of my old brethren, a physician once, belonged to 
my Church, and I got after him about not coming 
out, and he said that he tried his best to get there, 
but he could not. "Well/' said I, "I'll tell you, 
old fellow, if heaven was a sickly country, I do n 't 
believe I'd want to go there." "Well," he said: 
" why ? " " Well, I am afraid there will be very 
few doctors there." I don't know what in the 
world's the matter, but there are so few doctors 
that are pious, but when you do find one that is 
thoroughly pious he is one of the best men on the 
face of the earth. 

What 's the matter with our professional men ? 
Have they grown too big to be religious? Have 
they grown up to where the Bible is considered 
their mother's and their little children's book? 
What is the matter? O, sir, listen to me to-night. 
The grandest lawyers this world ever produced 
were the men who loved and lived by this blessed 
book I am preaching from to-night. The best 
physicians and the grandest in the science in which 
they worked were men who read this book and 
loved this book, and when they came to die they 
said, "Wife, put the Bible under my head, and 
let it be my blessed pillow upon which I shall 
breathe my last." 



Godliness and Life. 227 

I do n't want any better evidence of the upstart 
than a fellow that gets too big to like the Bible ; 
and I declare to you that it has reached the point 
in this country now, if a fellow has much to say 
about the Bible and the faith of this book, they 
w r ill ridicule him, they will say he is a fool that 
believes every thing — they will that. O, my breth- 
ren, when I see a Newton as he comes down from 
his observatory, just now numbering and count- 
ing the stars as he swept his telescope across the 
skies, I see him lay down his telescope and walk 
down into his closet, and kneel down and pray 
to God, and walk out and say to his wife, " Pre- 
cious wife, I got closer to God on my knees 
in the closet than I was just now in my ob- 
servatory, as I was counting and numbering the 
stars." The little fellow has too much sense to 
believe the Bible ! A big head in a man is a heap 
worse than it is in a horse. A horse will die in 
about a week, but the poor fellow lives on in the 
way of all the country — one of these knowing fel- 
lows. The Lord likes one of these fellows who 
says," I don't know much;" a man who drops down 
on his knees every morning when he first wakes up 
and says, "Lord God, go with me this day. I am 
poor and weak and miserable and ignorant and 
blind. O, Lord ! I would not risk myself out of 
this room and out of my yard to-day unless you go 
with me. Take my hand, precious Father, and 
lead me, because I know not the way." The Lord 
likes one of these men that feels in his heart, "I 
haven't got sense enough to go to my front gate 



228 Sermons and Sayings. 

and back unless the God of heaven will go with 
mc." That is my sort. 

" Besides this giving all diligence, add unto your 
faith, virtue." I like this rule of addition. I like 
it. I want more and more, and still there is more 
to follow. I want to be larger to-day, and better 
to-day, and grander to-day than yesterday. And 
the biggest reason in the world why I 'd rather live 
ten years longer in this life than to die to-morrow — 
the biggest reason after all — is the fact, that in the 
next ten years, if God lets me live, I intend to 
eliminate much that is evil about me, and I intend 
to grow and develop into a grander Christian man 
than I claim to be to-night. My highest wish for 
a longer period of life is that before the day of 
crystallization, God may eliminate from me all that 
is evil, and develop me into all that is good. 

" Add unto your faith, virtue ; and to virtue, 
knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to 
temperance, patience" — enough to keep a man pious. 
You will find that evil here is broad and deep as you 
look out. "Add unto your faith, virtue." You take 
these seven graces before us to-night. Now, six 
thousand years ago God said " Let there be light, 
and there was light," but this world enjoyed its rays 
for thousands of years before any philosopher an- 
alyzed it and told us what pure, white light is. 
After a while the philosopher stepped to the front 
and he told us that pure, white, physical light is 
the symmetrical blending of the seven primary colors 
we find in the rainbow — red and blue and orange 
and green, etc. ; that the seven is pure white phys- 



Godliness and Life. 229 

ical light. Jesus Christ said to his Church : " Ye 
are the light of the world. " They did not under- 
stand him. But Peter studied the question and 
stepped forth as the great philosopher in spiritual 
things, and tells us that pure, white spiritual light 
is the symmetrical blending of the seven primary 
Christian graces — faith and courage and knowledge 
and temperance and patience and brotherly kindness 
and charity. The seven graces will shed forth a 
light that will, indeed, light the whole world. 

Now, brother, let us change the figure a moment 
and look at it in this way : we are building for 
eternity. Every man ought to look well to the 
foundation. Jesus Christ is the great foundation 
upon which we rest all our hope and all our ex- 
perience and all our patience for time and eternity. 
Christ is the great bed-rock, and faith in him as we 
build this spiritual temple, faith in Christ, is the 
first rock put down. And we build this temple 
without the sound of a hammer. We build this 
temple out of divine material and according to 
divine direction, and the first rock I put down — the 
bed-rock — is faith ; for " without faith it is impos- 
sible to please God." " He that believeth shall be 
saved." I may say that my heart rests upon this 
old book ; I may say that I believe this book ; I 
may say that I inherited a faith from my father and 
mother in this blessed book ; I may say that there 
is not a single utterance of God that I doubt in my 
heart to-night. Call me a dupe and call me a fool, 
but tell others, when you say I am a dupe and a 
fool, tell them I am a happy one. 



230 Sermons and Sayings. 

Faith in my Bible ? I believe this book ; I be- 
lieve this book, and this book has blessed thousands 
of men before I was born, and the best men on 
whom I lean every day, whisper back in my ear : 
"That blessed book is a lamp to my feet and a light 
unto my path." This blessed book, that never mis- 
led a human step and never misdirected a human 
life ; this book, with its morals so pure and with its 
Christ so ennobling and elevating to the race — I 
believe, I believe ! 

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker 
of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only 
begotten son, our Lord ; I believe in the Holy 
Ghost ; in the Church of God. I believe — I be- 
lieve there is power in God and virtue in the blood 
of Christ and truth in the Holy Ghost ; and, breth- 
ren, if I didn't believe that book, and believe God 
is its author, and God is with me, I'd close this 
book and close my mouth and leave this town on 
the first train that left for my home. I believe my 
Bible ; and when the Christian people of this town 
believe this book, we are going to take this book 
and conquer the whole city. I believe, I believe in 
God, as he is the Father of all men, preserver of 
all life, inspirer of all that is good. 

I believe in God, and now to this faith in God 
and faith in the right, what is the next rock we 
lay down ? See how this will fit : "Add unto 
your faith, virtue" — virtus, courage. Now, don't 
you see that if a man believes he is right the very 
next thing he wants is a courage that dares to do 
right and dares to be true. I want to say at this 



Godliness and Life. 231 

point that I am not talking about physical courage. 
I am afraid that Christian people are sometimes 
physical cowards. I do not want a man to be a 
physical coward, but above all things deliver me 
from a moral coward. I want to tell you that I 
have searched this book from Genesis to Revela- 
tion, and I find that God never did ohoose a man 
to do a great work for him but that that man was 
game from head to foot. God despises a coward. 

Moral courage ! Physical courage is not much. 
Physical courage will march me right up into 
the blazing mouth of a cannon without shaking a 
muscle in my body, but that is not much. I have 
known generals and colonels and majors and cap- 
tains and privates in this last war that never had a 
muscle quiver in front of a cannon. Yet these same 
men after coming home from the war would quake 
and wince and whine in the presence of public 
opinion. Afraid of that ! Afraid of that ! And I 
will tell you another thing for which a fellow needs 
courage. There are a great many things in this 
world that stand looking a fellow in the face and 
shake their fist at him, and if he has n 't got the grit 
he will run, no doubt about it. And I say to-night 
every man that walks out before this world and 
would make it purer and better, that man shall, 
like his Lord, have his Gethsemane, and his Pilate's 
bar, and his Judas Iscariot and his Simon Peter 
and his cross. 

I tell you another thing. I would rather face 
every cannon in America to-night, as far as I am 
personally concerned, than face the opinion of the 



232 Sermons and Sayings. 

elite society of this city. What a hollow, miserable, 
heartless, godless old wretch that society is ! Why, 
you can get on the street cars of this town, so I have 
been told, that are filled with theater-going, dancing, 
godless members of the Church, and Sam Jones is 
their text from the time you step on until you step 
off. Some say he is a brute. Some say he is as 
ignorant as a Southern plantation darky. Some 
say he is a vicious man. Some say one thing, and 
some another thing, and they shell the woods for a 
fellow. It is like the barking of a " fise " dog after 
a fast train — you can see the little fellow run, but 
you can not hear him bark. 

Right is right, and stand to it; and when the 
last storm of passion has swept over, God is with you. 
That is more than can be against you, and that is 
all that you need. You attack the ball-rooms in 
this town, and every dancing, worldly member of the 
Church, and every sinner, too, turns his guns right 
loose upon you. 

And I will tell you another thing. I want to 
say this to encourage you good Christian brethren 
that need just a little more backbone. When they tell 
you Jones is low-bred, do n't you believe them, for 
it is a lie ! When they tell you that Jones is 
ignorant, you tell them that won't do ; that Jones 
will go into a class with any of them to-morrow, 
and let a professor examine them on any subject. 
What do you say to that? And when they tell you 
that Jones came from bad stock, you tell them that 
a purer, nobler woman God never made than my 
mother, and that a better, purer man God never let 



Godliness and Life. 233 

live than my precious father. I am from as good 
a stock as God ever made. 

I want to tell you right now that I never was 
in society. I reckon that one reason for this is 
that I have been poor all my life, and they would 
have objected to me on that account. They would 
never have let me hi, anyhow. They would have 
known that I would tell on them, and they do n't 
want any tales told out of school ; I have found 
that out. But I did not mean to say any thing 
about society now. We shall take that up later. 
We will shake it, till it is ready to be turned loose 
when we get through with it. 

There are things in your city day after day and 
night after night that are enough to make a thou- 
sand mothers and fathers in this town call a halt, 
and say: "You had better stop right here. This 
thing has gone far enough." I tell you, mothers 
and fathers, if you will open your eyes and look 
around you a little you will call : "'Halt! halt ! halt! 
I will shoot you down if you take another step." 
And I know when a man begins to talk about these 
things I know how little Miss Finnicky and old 
Brother Finnicky and the whole devil's crowd will 
sit upon him. I have been around before. 

Courage ! courage ! Jesus Christ, the great ex- 
emplar in Christianity, preached his own Gospel, 
and when he did, do you recollect that on one oc- 
casion a vast multitude turned their backs on him 
and walked off in disgust ; and Jesus turned to his 
disciples and said : " Will ye also go away ?" And 
Simon Peter said : " Lord, to whom shall we go ? 

20 



234 Sermons and Sayings. 

For thou hast the words of eternal life." I do not 
believe I ever preached the Gospel as plainly as my 
Master preached it, for I have never had a congre- 
gation to " rush out" on me, and if ever I preach 
to a congregation and see the people jump up and 
run out of the house, I will jump up, too, and hol- 
ler, "Glory to God! I am preaching like my Mas- 
ter now." But that would not be any joke on me. 
Everywhere I have ever worked, God bless you, 
they would say you people in the city were so mean 
you would not hear Sam Jones. They would brag 
on me and curse you. That is about the way the 
thing would go. 

Courage that dares to be right and dares to be 
true! If a thing is wrong, fight it fight it! If it 
is right, stand up for it if every man on earth is 
against you. Stand and fight and fight and fight, and 
though you go down and think you are alone, I tell you 
that when the din and smoke of the battle has 
blown away and you open your eyes, you will find 
God and the angels and good men standing 
around you. 

Courage, brother! Now what does this mean? 
One time Peter's courage failed him, and of all the 
times in the world it was the time that Peter's 
courage ought to have held good. Yonder his 
Lord, defenseless and alone, given over to his en- 
emies, stood before that cruel crowd, and they spat 
upon him and buffeted him and plaited a crown of 
thorns and pressed it on his temple until the 
blood ran down his cheeks. And Peter stood there 
looking at it, no doubt, until his very blood boiled. 



Godliness and Life. 235 

And there was the Son of God and the Son of Man, 
without a friend in the world he came to redeem. 
There Peter stood out in the distance, and when 
the fatal moment came the people approached him 
and said: "You are one of his disciples;" and 
Peter answered : " No, I am not one of his disci- 
ples." And then again they approached him and 
said : " You are one of his disciples." He said : 
" No, I am not one of his disciples." And, again, 
a little girl approached him and said : "You are 
one of his disciples;" and Peter cursed and swore 
with an oath, and said : "I do not know him." 
Brother, I do not object to the way God's Word is 
written, but I have wished a thousand times that 
when my Master stood there, without a friend in 
the world, and they approached Peter, I have 
wished that Peter had rushed up by the Son of God 
and said : " I am one of his disciples, and I will 
die by his side." If he had done that I believe 
that God would have rushed every angel in heaven 
down to Peter's side before he would have suffered 
a hair of his head to be touched. And we 
have forsaken our Master when he did not have a 
friend in the world. 

Courage ! Courage ! I tell you, this sickly senti- 
mentalism that we have that God's people are a j}eace- 
ful, quiet, and get-out-the-devil's-way sort of people 
is a mistake. Down in my State I have been preach- 
ing prohibition, and in Georgia I have gone into 
those counties where prohibition was being fought 
the hardest, and said : " Brethren of the Church, 
take a stand and hold it. Do not let a barkeeper, 



236 Sermons and Sayings. 

that has not got more than three gallons of whisky, 
and that bought on credit, come out on the square 
on election day with an old, rusty pistol in his hand 
that has n't been loaded since the war, and curse 
two or three times, and talk loud and run every 
member of the Church out of town. God have 
mercy on you pusillanimous wretches," said I. 
" Hold your ground, and tell them that if they can 
die for their infernal traffic you can die for your 
precious children." And I said, " Go on, and God's 
approval will rest with you." 

There was a day when one of God's armies 
was battling with the enemies of God. Joshua, the 
commander, was fighting with all the ransomed 
powers at his back, and the enemy was being beaten 
down in front of the ranks of God's hosts. But 
Joshua looked up, and saw that the sun was going 
down, and he looked up and said: "O God, if you 
will give me two or three hours more sunshine I '11 
put this army to flight and will win a victory that 
shall make thine armies famous forever." And God 
turned and told the sun to go back on the dial, and 
" do n't you move an inch until Joshua routs this 
army root and branch and sweeps it almost from 
the face of the earth." And I tell you God will 
make the sun stand still in the heavens and the 
moon not move in the Valley of Ajalon, if God's 
people ever have the courage to stand up and dare 
to be right and dare to be true. 



Sermon XII. 



THE WAGKS OF SIN. 



" The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal 
life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord." — Eom. vi, 23. 

THERE are two questions which always come up 
legitimately and inevitably between employer 
and employe, between a hireling and his master. If 
you seek to employ a man for a day, or a week, or 
a month, or a year, the first question he inevitably 
puts to you is this : " What kind of work do you 
want me to do?" And when this question is satis- 
factorily answered there is another, inevitable and 
legitimate, and that is, " What will you pay me for 
it?" These two questions are the very basis of all 
contracts for labor. There can be no intelligent 
contract for labor to be rendered you without the 
settling of these two questions, What do you want 
me to do? and what will you pay me for it? 

There may be a great many persons here to- 
night who boast of the fact that they were never in 
the employment of any body, or never sustained the 
relation of a servant or a hireling in their lives. 
There is a very important sense in which we are 
all doing service and in which we are serving a 
master, though you may boast of constitutional lib- 
erty, and that you live in the freest country in the 
world, whose constitution guarantees to every man 
his life and liberty and property ; and yet there is a 
fearful sense in which all men are servants and all 

237 



238 Sermons and Sayings. 

men are at work for a master, and there is a very- 
important sense in which pay-day is coming. 

Whose servant am I ? Our Savior taught us 
no man could serve two masters; he would either 
hold to the one and despise the other, or hate the 
one and love the other. He taught us again, To 
whom you yield service obey him willingly. A 
great many people say, When you bring me into the 
moral world I serve no master at all; and if this 
world is cursed with any class it is the man who 
says he is neither good nor bad! You ask him, "Are 
you a good man?" and he will say, "No, sir;" and 
if you ask him, " Are you a bad man," he will say, 
" No, sir." Neither good nor bad ! If there is a 
being in the world I have a contempt for it is a 
character of this sort. 

There are a great many of that class in this 
world too — a so-called class. " I am neither good 
nor bad." I ain't good enough to go to heaven, 
may be, but I ain't bad enough to go to hell — yes, 
and I reckon you'll force a moral issue on this uni- 
verse, and claim that God made a third v^orld to 
put you in when you die ; neither good nor bad. 
La, me ; how many men in this world sustain that 
relation toward the truth and the judgment of God. 

Hear me on this question. Our Savior said : 
" He that is not with me is against me. He that 
gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad," and the 
lines are so sharply and so clearly drawn, that no 
man can stand squarely on a line between the good 
and the evil, between the right and the wrong, 
heaven's best interests and hell, with its demoraliz- 



The Wages of Six. 239 

ing influence. I say every man of us is either on 
the one side or the other side of this line, and any 
man that isn't good enough to go to heaven is going 
to hell. That 's all you can make out of it. Neither 
good nor bad ! There are two classes in all com- 
munities that puzzle the balance of humanity. 
Here 7 s one man in the Church — we '11 say a clever, 
moral, decent sort of a man; he belongs to the 
Church, and he'll pray when called upon, and he 
seems to make a good steward, but he does n't pay 
his debts, and does n't act right toward his neigh- 
bors. Here 's a man that does n't belong to the 
Church — he will stand out there, and he pays all 
his debts, and he 's liberal to the poor, but he does n't 
belong to the Church. There stands the Church 
member and here stands the other fellow — the Church 
member won't pay his debts and won't do right by 
his neighbor, but he seems to be trying to do his 
duty towards God and not to man. The other is 
doing his duty to his fellow-men, but he is n't act- 
ing right towards God. 

There 's another fellow says : " I 'd a heap rather 
be the man out of the Church that pays his debts 
and acts right to his fellow-men than the one in the 
Church that won't pay his debts and do right with 
his neighbors, but acts square to God. I'd a heap 
rather be this one." Brother, why do you want to 
be a fool by being either one of them? I don't, 
and I not only do n't want to be either one of them, 
but I won't be either of them. I 'm going into the 
kingdom of Christ, and intend to do my whole duty 
to God and to my fellow-men ; and now when you 



240 Sermons and Sayings. 

see a man do this you see a whole man — not one of 
these little half-and-half fellows ; one trying to do 
what the Lord tells him to do and being mean 
toward his neighbor, and the other doing right by 
his neighbor but being wrong with the Lord. I 
do n't think there 's much good about either, but I 'd 
a heap sight rather be the fellow in the Church, 
for if I 'm going to mistreat any body it is n't going 
to be God — he's the best friend I've got. Listen 
to me. My first duty is toward God, and I will do 
right towards him ; and my next duty is to my fel- 
low-men, and I will do right towards them; and 
then when I do this I 'm made up for both worlds. 

" He that is not with me is against me. He 
that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." A 
man must take sides on the great moral issues of 
the world, and he must take sides with one or the 
other of the two great contending forces. A man 
must be with God or he is with the devil in all his 
walks and ways. I grant you, it looks sometimes 
as if a man is dividing up the thing. A man is 
trying to serve two masters. It reminds me of a 
Union man during the late war, and he had more 
loyalty than any body. He sent every boy he had 
to the war, but he was running a powder mill on 
the Confederate side, furnishing powder to the rebels. 
What do you think of such a man ? He loves the 
Union well enough to give his boys to die for the 
Union, but he says : " If I can make a little money 
by furnishing powder to the rebels, all right." 

Many a man in this country loves a dollar bet- 
ter than he does his children. Put that down. I'll 



The Wages of Sin. 241 

tell you another thing. Many a man says he loves 
the Church, and he will put all his children into 
the Church, and he's renting a bar-room to a fellow 
who sells whisky and demoralizes the town — rent- 
ing, perhaps, even worse places than that — a soldier 
of Christ running a powder mill over the line and 
furnishing ammunition to the devil. I can take a 
handful of copper cents and tole a fellow like that 
to hell and eternal fire by just dropping the cop- 
pers along about every foot or two, right up to 
the fires. I can that. Better the man that gets 
down off the fence, and takes one side or the other. 
I like that. 

In our State, in the prohibition fight, we had 
Prohibitionists that were Prohibitionists from the 
crown of their hat to the toe of their boot, and we 
had anti-Prohibitionists all over anti, but then we 
had a great many people that said they were not 
going to take any stock in it — going to vote one 
way or the other. The old fools, they belonged 
to the devil, from the tip of their head to the end 
of the heels. " Is n't going to take any sides at 
all ! " and the fellow is the sneakingest hound dog 
in creation. He is that. What is he good for? 
I '11 tell you what's the matter. He 's afraid if he 
makes a move one way or the other some fellow will 
crack his head. That's what's the matter with 
him, and the day of election he won't go down town 
at all. His wife says to him : " Husband, why 
do n't you get up and vote this awful stuff out of 
the community?" And he says: "I ain't well; 
I 'm afraid if I go out I '11 get in a fuss ; I do n't 

21 



242 Sermons and Sayings. 

want to be mixed up with fusses." You old, little 
pusillanimous coward, you — that's what you are. 

Let's come out on one side or the other on all 
moral questions. If I 'm for a thing, I 'm for it. 
If I 'm against a thing, I 'm against it with all my 
might, and you can 't wake me up on any question 
any minute in the day, and find me on both sides 
of the fence, or a-straddle of the fence, for I love to 
see a man a man all over, and a man of conviction. 
I do that. If Fm on the right side, I 'm there to 
stay; and if I'm on the wrong side, I'll come over 
as soon as you show me I 'm wrong. 

Brethren, we may settle this question here to- 
night, in five minutes. " Whose side am I on?" 
We must settle it. A tree is known by its fruit. 
A salty fountain can 't send forth pure water. Sam 
Small never told a bigger truth than when he said 
the other day, "If I wanted to raise a mob in this 
town to do unrighteous things, to fight God and 
truth and right, I'd beat the long roll in every 
saloon in this town, and I 'd muster in the fumes 
of lager beer and whisky the worst element hell 
itself could generate and get up." Is n't that so ? 
I used to think these whisky fellows were the clev- 
erest fellows in the world, but when I was done with 
them, and began to throw some shot in among 
them, my, my, I threw some shot into the dirtiest, 
stinkingest places man's eyes ever looked into. 
You can always tell what a thing is when you be- 
gin to fire into it ; you can see the fumes of it in 
the atmosphere when you're firing. 

A heap of the people in this town, that stand 



The Wages of Sin. 243 

back and won't take one side or the other, are 
allied with the worst influence of earth. That's 
so. I recollect when the proposition was made at a 
temperance meeting once, and when the time came 
for the signing of the pledge of total abstinence, a 
good pastor of the city said : " I ain't ready to sign 
the pledge. I'm a good temperance man, but I'm 
not a teetotaler. I believe a little occasionally will 
help me. I'm as much down on drunkenness as 
any body, but I want it understood I believe in tem- 
perance, though not in prohibition." About that 
time a fellow sitting away over in the corner stag- 
gered to his feet and said, with a drunken leer on 
his face, and with fumes of whisky on his breath, 
"Mr. Presiden', that preacher (hie) just 'spresses 
(hie) my sen'ments 'xacly (hie)." The preacher 
jumped up and said: "Well, if that's the kind of 
fellows I've got to go with, you can put me down 
on the side of teetotalism forever." 

When you begin to dilly-dally and waver about 
religion, let me tell you, brethren, the devil puts you 
down soul and body on his side. That's a fact. 
I 've often thought of the story told of that poor 
girl over yonder at the dance. During the dance 
she dropped dead on the floor, and the story goes 
on to say that the devil came immediately and car- 
ried off her soul, but in a few minutes St. Peter 
came running up and said : " Where 's the soul of 
that girl gone ?" and somebody said : " The devil 
has just come and taken it off." St. Peter rushed 
after the devil in double-quick time and overtook 
him. He said: "Hold on, sir." "What's the 



244 Sermons and Sayings. 

matter?" said the devil. " You 've got a member of 
the Church's soul there, carrying it off. You have 
no right to that, sir." " Well," said the devil, 
" you can take it away if you want to, but she died 
in my territory." 

As men live, so they die, and if you can 't afford 
to die on the devil 's side, let me say to you you 'd 
better not go over there at all. You 'd better not. 
If non-members of the Church want to play cards and 
dance and drink whisky, we have no right to enter 
protest ; but I'll tell you whenever I find members 
of the Church, who have sworn, allegiance to Christ 
playing cards and drinking whisky and going to 
theaters, I 'm going to look them in the face and 
holler out, " Traitor!" "Traitor!" "Traitor!" 
That's what you are — a traitor. Brethren, that's 
pretty strong, but when you go home if you '11 pick 
me out any thing stronger I'll use it also. I 
have n't any compromise to make. Many a one in 
this town is kicking hard right now, too. They say 
" Why it 's outrageous the way that man goes on 
talking about the Church. It's ridiculous, and it 
ought n't to be permitted at all." 

I tell you only a hit dog will run and howl 
every crack. There's no law against it. If they 
ain't hit, I want them to hush. I got some letters 
to-day that made me feel sad in my soul. I've a 
good mind to pull some of them out and read them. 
It's enough to make an angel shudder, just to think 
what members of the Church in this city are guilty 
of day after day and year after year. It is that. 

Let's take sides, brethren. Let's come over on 



The Wages of Sin. 245 

God's side all over and forever, or let 's quit it alto- 
gether and go on the devil's side. In one of the 
towns in Georgia a member of the Church — a 
different Church from mine — said to me, " Jones, I 
want to ask you a question. What harm is there in 
card-playing?" " Do you play cards?" asked I. 
" Yes," said he. " You 're a deacon in your Church?" 
"Yes," said he; "and if you will convince me 
there 's any harm in this thing, I '11 quit it forever." 
Said I, " You 're already convinced of one thing, 
ain 't you ? " " Why, what 's that ? " said he. " That 
you ain't worth the powder and lead to kill you 
out of the Church?" "Yes, that's so," said the 
fellow. 

" Well, then," I said, " I have n't got any time to 
fool away with such fellows as you. If you were 
any good I'd stand here an hour, but you've con- 
fessed you ain 't worth the powder and lead to kill 
you, and I haven't any powder to waste on such as 
you." 

Is there a man here that prays every day and 
goes to prayer-meeting regularly, and pays his 
quarterage like a liberal man, and gives liberally to 
foreign missions — is there one like that that goes to 
the theater, and dances, and plays cards and drinks 
whisky? If there is, stand up. If you are what 
God says you ought to be, and still you do these 
things, stand up, and I '11 apologize for what I said 
against you. I never will apologize to any of the 
uncircumcised Philistines — I never will. If you 
live right and do your duty, and I wound your feel- 
ings, I'll beg your pardon, but if you're living the 



246 Sekmons and Sayings. 

life of a hypocrite in the Church, I will not apolo- 
gize for preaching the truth to you. 

One side or the other; for or against; serving 
God or serving the devil, one or the other — that's 
the text. Are you a servant of the devil? "To 
whom you yield yourself for service, obey his serv- 
ice." Listen. " Keep my Commandments." Do 
you do that? No? Well, then you are not a serv- 
ant of the Lord. "Deny yourself; take up your 
cross and follow me." Do you do that ? No ? Then 
you are not a servant of the Lord. If a man is n't 
a servant of the Lord then he 's a servant of the 
devil. 

Let's drop back on the first proposition. Go to 
your master to-night, the devil; ask him what kind 
of work he wants you to do. He wants you to 
profane God's name, he wants you to belie the Sab- 
bath, he wants you to debauch your soul with 
whisky, for it is said : " No drunkard shall enter 
the kingdom of heaven." Is that the sort of work 
he wants you to do? Yes, it is. Not only does 
he want you to do that sort of work, but there are 
a hundred of you here that can say : " That 's the 
sort of work he sets out for me year after year. 
He wants me to do those things that will degrade 
me in my own eyes, in the eyes of God, in the eyes of 
men, in the eyes of my family. He wants me to do 
every thing that 's disreputable and that will doom 
me forever in the future." Isn't that so? How 
many men here to-night can testify: "That's the 
truth in my case ?" 

If this is the sort of dirty, disreputable work the 



The Wages of Sin. 247 

devil wants you to do, you ask the question, " What 
does he pay for it ? What are the wages ?" You 
ask yourself this question, for may be pay-day will 
come on you before 12 o'clock to-night, when the 
laborer is worthy of his hire, and your wages will 
be counted to you to the last cent. Brethren, it is 
well enough to stop and ask yourself this question, 
for none of us know how close pay-day is at hand. 
Old fellow, you w T ant to settle this question, " What 
are the wages for the life of servile bondage in the 
service of the devil ?" I asked an old fellow this 
question one day, and happening to meet him the 
day after, he said: "If I had stood up and told 
those people what my wages have been for my ser- 
vice to the devil in the past sixty-five years, it would 
have frightened them. All I Ve got to show is the 
worst family in Georgia, and a knowledge of the 
fact that neither myself nor my family will be saved. 
That 's all I can show for sixty-five years' service 
to the devil." 

Brethren, stop here to-night and ask, What are 
my wages? The wages of sin is death, damnation 
and degradation. You ask, is that so? I can dig 
out of your cemeteries in Cincinnati, O how 
many, who are fit representatives of the eternal truth 
I am talking of right now. What are your wages? 
Pay-day is coming. Suppose, we will say, I am a 
servant of the Lord ; suppose I serve him and make 
him the delight of my soul and my heart. I win- 
der what he wants me to do ? He wants me to do 
those things that will make every body think more 
of me and make angels think more of me. He 



248 Sermons and Sayings. 

wants me to do those things that will elevate me 
in time and make me fit and meet for heaven here- 
after. In this delightful service of the Lord you 
must keep the commandments, and when you can 
do that then you can say, "O Lord, I can enter 
such service as that for nothing." You won't want 
any wages for doing that. You will gladly go and 
serve him forever. What does he pay? Cash enough 
to live on every day; and when you get old and 
wrinkled and gray-headed, and can not work any 
longer, he stoops down and picks you up and gives 
you a house in heaven to live in with him and 
angels forever. If these things are true, brethren, 
can you tell me how it is that the devil has a serv- 
ant in the world? I'll tell you how he got you, 
and how he is keeping you, and the Lord help you 
to-night to break these chains and walk forth a free 
man from this time on. 

Brethren, let's take one side or the other of 
these questions. You can 't be on the fence and 
be saved. You must come over to one side or the 
other. 

I can never forget the hours in my life when I 
turned this world loose and had no God to take my 
hand. O brother, for nearly a week I was wading 
and wading through the deepest trials. I had turned 
loose all my sins, and I could not find the hand of 
God. I was reaching up, saying, " Father, take my 
hand ! take my hand I" And on I went. I felt like 
the veriest orphan in all the universe of God, and 
miserably I pressed my way along, the most miser- 
able man in the world. Thank God for those awful 



The Wages of Sin. 249 

hours ! They have been so awful to me that my 
footsteps shall never go back over that road. God, 
let me die before I shall ever cross that weary quag- 
mire again in my human experience, poor and 
wretched and miserable! This was the first cup 
presented to my lips — the cup of repentance. I 
drank it down; and O, what anguish and misery 
of soul I felt. The next cup God presented was the 
cup of justification, and as I drank it I said, " Well, 
surely, God has kept the good wine until now." 
O, none out of God can know how glorious the sin- 
ner feels when he hears the voice of God saying: 
"Son, daughter, thy sins, which are many, are all 
forgiven ! " 

The first cup God presented to St. Paul, he was 
stricken down in the road and struck stone blind. 
For three days and nights he groped his way in 
darkness until he reached the house of Judas, and 
when Ananias laid his hands upon him and the 
scales fell from his eyes and joy came into his soul, 
I suppose St. Paul thought, " Well, God has kept 
the good wine until now." And a few months after 
that St. Paul was caught up into the third heaven and 
poised himself over the city of God, and looked down 
on the towering spires and jasper walls and pearly 
gates, and his ears were charmed with the songs of 
angels and the music of the redeemed. I suppose 
as he looked down on that city of God that he said : 
" Well, verily God has kept the good wine until 
now." But by and by in his lonely prison at Rome 
God presented another cup, and St. Paul took his 
pen again and wrote to Timothy : "The time of 



250 Sermons and Sayings. 

my departure is at hand." He just took that great 
clod of a word which we call " death " and threw it on 
one side, and he said : " The time of my departure 
is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have 
finished my course, I have kept the faith." If we 
had St. Paul down here to-night to conclude this 
service, and he would just tell us what good things 
God has in store for us, we would all leave here 
shouting the praises of God for the glorious hope of 
an immortal life beyond the skies. 

I have thought of many things in reference to 
eternity. I have thought this way : I have lain down 
and dreamed of heaven, and I have stood up and 
thought of heaven, and I have sat down and read 
of heaven, and then I have sung of heaven, and on 
I go; but, brethren, all the money I have got in 
the universe is in this bank, and if it does n't break 
I am a millionaire. I have felt it many a time. 
All my calculations and all my interest is in that 
direction, and if at the final day God should say to 
me : " Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting flames," I 
will turn my back and walk away from the gates 
of heaven the worst disappointed man that God 
ever drove away from his presence. No, sir. My 
calculations are all that way. And then after awhile, 
if I do succeed and step inside of the pearly gates and 
turn around and see God and angels, and precious 
mother and father and loved ones, brethren, I will 
just bury my face in my hands and say, " Sure enough, 
beyond all doubt or cavil, I am here, I am here." 
And blessed be God, I just as fully expect to realize 
that I am in heaven as I realize to-night I am here, 



The Wages of Sin. 251 

in fact more so. I may be mistaken about being 
in this city, it may be somewhere else; but when I 
get to heaven, there is no place in the world like 
heaven, and I will know I am there, sure enough. 
Well, now I know what a servant of God will 
do for other folks, and we are all alike. I have 
been watching some things mighty close during the 
last few years. I was pastor of a Church, and in 
that Church there was one of the most faithful godly 
women I ever saw in my life. Her husband was 
wealthy and she gave with a princely hand to the 
poor and to every good cause, and it was joy to her 
heart to do for the Master. And finally her time 
came to pass out of this world. I visited her in her 
last illness. She was dying of consumption, and 
had spent several Winters in Florida. When I 
would go into her room and talk to her she would 
frequently say, " I dread to die ; not the result of 
death," she said, " but the agonies of death." And 
I talked to her and encouraged her all I could. She 
said, "I am so frail, I am so weak I can scarcely 
lift my hands, and, O! how can I grapple with 
physical death?" The last time I visited her be- 
fore she died she motioned to the company present 
to leave the room — I suppose she did, for they- all 
got up and walked out at once and left me alone 
with her. Then she said : " My pastor, I have some 
things of importance to say to you that I never 
want you to mention while I live, for the world 
makes light of such things, and what I say to you 
is as sacred to me as my own soul." She said, 
" You know I told you when you were here last 



252 Sermons and Sayings. 

that I was afraid of the agonies of death ; not of 
what is beyond." "Yes, ma'am," I replied. 
"Well," she says, "I am not now." "Why," said 
I, "what brought about the change?" She said, 
" Yesterday I was lying in my room here and I put 
my handkerchief over my face and I was thinking 
of heaven, and, all at once a scene just as natural 
as life presented itself. It seemed that I stood upon 
the moss-covered banks of a beautiful river and the 
noiseless water was rolling gently by. All at once 
a little boat ran its prow out right at my feet, and 
the oarsman invited me into the boat. I stepped 
into the little boat and it moved off so noiselessly, 
and we disembarked on the other bank amid the 
shouts of the angels and the songs of the redeemed, 
and they carried me up a beautiful avenue to a 
palace, and we walked up to the door of the palace 
and the door stood ajar. They carried me into the 
palace, and I felt like a stranger in a strange place. 
They carried me up to the King and introduced 
me to him, and as soon as my eyes fell upon him I 
saw and recognized immediately that it was the 
world's Redeemer, my precious Savior, and I was at 
home from that time on. Now," she said, " I am 
not afraid to die." 

Just a few days afterwards, as her husband sat 
with her, she called him in a whisper. He went to her. 
She said : " Husband, I feel so delightfully strange ; 
what do you think is the matter with me?" He 
felt her hand and felt her arm to her body, and it 
was cold. " O, precious wife," he said, " you are 
dying." She raised her arms and clasped them 



The Wages of Sin. 253 

round his neck, and said : " O, husband, if this is 
death, what a glorious thing it is to die." And she 
fell back upon her pillow and never breathed 
again. 

Just eleven days after that I was walking along 
by the hotel, and the husband of this good woman 
said: " Mr. Jones, my little Annie is very sick. I 
wish you would come and see her." She was the 
only child of that man and the good sister that had 
died. As I walked into the room, there was little 
Annie, little ten-year-old Annie, sick with diph- 
theria. I walked in and took her hand and said : 
" Sweet darling, are you suffering much ?" She 
said in a whisper : " Yes, sir ; a good deal." I said : 
" Darling, do you want me to talk to you ?" And 
she said: "Yes, sir; if you please." "What 
about?" I asked. She said: "I want you to talk 
to me about heaven." I said : " Well, darling, it is 
a great country, a glorious place, where little girls 
never suffer, and mamma is never sick, and where 
all is life and health and peace." And her little 
eyes fairly shone like diamonds in her head while I 
talked. And directly the doctors walked in and her 
father said : " Annie, darling, the doctors want to 
cauterize, to burn your throat again." She looked 
up so pleadingly and said : " Papa, please sir, 
don't let them burn my throat any more. Mamma 
has been calling me all the morning, and I want to 
go." "Why," he said, "sweet darling, if you go 
papa won 't have any little girl. Won't you stay 
with papa?" "Well," she said, "they may burn 
my throat, but it won't do any good. I am going 



254 Sekmons and Sayings. 

to mamma." They burned her throat, and she lay 
perfectly quiet a minute or two. Then she was vis- 
ited by some Sunday-school children, and she 
turned and said: "Won't you sing "Shall We 
Gather at the Kiver?" And she said: "I have 
heard them singing it over there, and mamma is 
joining in." The little children began to sing, and 
just as they commenced the chorus, the sweet spirit 
of little Annie left the body with a placid, heavenly 
smile on its face, and went home to live with her 
mamma forever. No wonder the old prophet said : 
"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my 
last end be like his." " Mark the perfect man 
and behold the upright, for the end of that man is 
peace." 

Peace ! Peace ! Now another incident and then 
I will quit, just to show you the difference ; a 
simple contrast. I want you to see it. During the 
last cruel war — and how cruel it was — a ministei 
in our State was summoned to Virginia by a tele- 
gram, which read: "Your brother is mortally 
wounded. Hurry to the front." This ministei 
hurried to the front as fast as the trains could carry 
him to the battlefields of Virginia. When he 
reached Virginia he found his brother was wounded 
sure enough fatally. He was in a country home, 
and he made haste to the place, and when he w r alked 
into the room where his suffering brother was lying 
he went up to the bed and took his hand. He saw 
immediately that death was doing its work, and he 
said : " Brother, I am so glad to get here before 
you die. Brother, I am so anxious about your soul. 



The Wages of Sin. 255 

You have been a wicked man all your life ; I have 
prayed for you, and talked with you many a time. 
Now, brother, brother, will you right here surrender 
your heart to God?" "O," said the wounded 
man, " do not talk to me about my soul. I have 
thrown away all my health and vigorous days and 
despised God and religion, and now I can do nothing 
with every fiber of my body burning and aching. 
O, brother, I can not talk with you now about re- 
ligion." The next day the brother tried his best 
to approach him again, but the wounded brother 
waved him off, and said : " Brother, I am tortured 
to death with physical pain. Please, do not trouble 
me now. I am unprepared and shall die unpre- 
pared, but do not torture me more than I am being 
tortured." He could not approach him. 

It was the sixth night this preacher brother 
had sat by his brother's bedside. Loss of sleep and 
exhaustion and anxiety had reduced him so much 
and worried him so, that, as the wounded brother 
was lying quietly that night about twelve o'clock, 
he said to himself, " I will lie down on the cot and 
rest for a few moments. I won't go to sleep. I 
see brother is very low." And he said, "I lay 
down on the cot and, in a moment almost, was sound 
asleep." And while asleep he dreamed that his 
brother died with his mouth wide open, and just as 
soon as the soul left the body he saw the devil 
come in in bodily form and approach the bed, and 
walk up to his dead brother, and look down 
into his brother's mouth, and he saw that the 
soul was gone. And he said : " I thought that 



256 Sermons and Sayings. 

when the soul of my brother left his body it hid 
among the piles of wood I had piled up by the 
fire to keep the fire going, and the devil scented 
the soul, and started around to my brother's hid- 
den soul, and as the devil approached that hiding 
place the soul flew out of the room, crying l Lost ! 
Lost ! Lost ! Forever lost V And/' said he, " in the 
distance I heard the wail of my brother's soul as 
it hurried out of the reach of the devil, and in the 
distance I could hear the shrieks and screams of 
my brother's soul as the devil fastened his talons 
in it forever and ever. And when I awoke up, 
agitated and frightened, the light had gone out. 
And," said he, "I jumped up and lit the lamp. I 
walked up to the bed. There was my poor brother, 
lying with his mouth wide open and dead. And I 
believe God shut my eyes in sleep to show me the 
scene that presented itself in that room." 



S AY INGS. 

Faith is the principle on which Omnipotence 
slumbers. 

God loves righteousness and hates sin. The 
devil loves sin and hates righteousness. That is 
the difference. 



Sermon XIII. 

ST. PAUL'S I^ASTT WORDS. 

"But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the 
work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." — 
2 Tim. iv, 5. 

THAT is what St. Paul said to Timothy, and 
then he added : " For I am now ready to be 
offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up 
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and 
not to me only, but unto all them also that love his 
appearing." Now, in the verse which we read as 
a text, St. Paul said four things to Timothy ; and 
these words we might denominate his dying words — 
the last words of one of the greatest men God ever 
made. I have been frequently touched by reading 
the words of St. Paul to Timothy. I have seen the 
fatherly interest and the tender, watchful care that 
St. Paul bestowed upon Timothy, his own son in 
the Gospel ; and now that they have had their last 
conversation, as they have preached and labored 
and eaten and walked and talked together for the 
last time ; and as all earthly association and com- 
munication is cut off forever, and St. Paul is about 
to pass to his reward, he has something to say to 
Timothy. 

How the last words of a dying neighbor im- 

22 257 



258 Sermons and Sayings. 

press us, and how the last words of a good father 
fasten themselves upon us ! How the last words 
of a good mother are cherished by us ! We can 
forget a thousand things father said while he lived, 
but we can never forget the last words of a good 
father. We forget a thousand things that mother 
said in life and health, but the last words of a 
precious mother linger with us like the memory of 
a pleasant dream. The last words of Paul to 
Timothy, and through Timothy to us! And O, how 
much St. Paul compassed in these three lines. 

The first thing he said to Timothy was this: 
" Watch thou in all things." If there ever was a 
day in the world's history when the people of God 
ought to be vigilant and watchful, it is now. This 
watchful spirit is the sentinel of the soul — the sen- 
tinel on the outpost. I am commanded to be vigi- 
lant, to be watchful, because my adversary, the 
devil, is going about like a roaring lion seeking 
whom he may devour. I am commanded to be 
vigilant and to be watchful because I wrestle not 
against flesh and blood, but against powers and 
principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places. 
General Washington said whenever danger was im- 
minent and the enemy was near by : " Put no one 
but Americans on the outposts to-night." And 
now while enemies surround us on all sides and 
press upon us in every direction, is it not best that 
we put none but the most vigilant souls upon the 
watch-tower, and that we put the sentinels that be- 
long to our own souls on the outposts, the most 
faithful. It was death for a sentinel to sleep at his 



St. Paul's Last Words. 259 

post. Do you wonder why they were so severe on 
poor fellows for goiug to sleep out on post? I ; 11 
tell you why. The safety, the peace, the lives of 
60,000 men are in the hands of that sentinel out 
there on the outpost, and for him to go to sleep on 
post means to have the enemy charge upon a camp 
of sleeping soldiers and butcher them in their bunks. 
No wonder the general says to his sentinel on the 
post : " It is death to go to sleep on the outpost 
there." And I tell you another thing : The way 
God talks to us, it is mighty near death to you and 
me if we ever forget to obey the text, and fail to be 
watchful. 

Another Scriptural term for this same expres- 
sion or thought is this : 

"Walk circumspectly." 

Now, that w^ord " circumspectly " is a Latin de- 
rived word, a compound word. It means "looking 
around you." The Indian walking in the primal 
forests of this country, inhabited by all kinds of 
wdld beasts and reptiles, walked with perfect safety, 
because he walked circumspectly. The Indian bade 
his squaw and his children good-by in the morning 
and went into the w T ild forests, inhabited by wild 
beasts and reptiles, and they did not think of his 
safety. They knew 7 that if the enemy approached 
him from the right, he saw him. If the enemy 
came from the front he saw him. To the left he 
saw 7 him. If he approached from the rear, his keen 
sense of hearing and seeing detected it. If it w 7 as 
a wild beast crouched on a limb above his pathway, 
he saw him. If it w^as a hissing serpent underneath 



260 Sermons and Sayings. 

on his pathway, he saw him. And the Indian 
walked in perfect safety, because he walked circum- 
spectly. Circumspectly! A man walks along and 
looking ahead of him is not walking circumspectly. 
A man who just looks to the right and looks ahead 
is not walking circumspectly. If a man looks on 
both sides and to the front he is not walking cir- 
cumspectly. If a man looks to the rear and in 
front and on both sides he is not walking circum- 
spectly. If a man looks above him and in front 
and on both sides and to the rear, he is not walking 
circumspectly. But if he look above and beneath 
and in front and to the right and to the left and in 
the rear, and in walking looks around both ways and 
all ways, then he is walking circumspectly, looking 
in every direction. 

I know not from what direction the enemy may . 
attack. I know not whether it shall be from the 
left or from the right, from the front or from the 
rear. I know not what sort of enemy it may be, 
and I know not the direction he may come upon 
me, and so I shall obey the Scripture and walk cir- 
cumspectly, looking around both ways. Both ways ! 
Walking circumspectly! Well, I must not only 
walk looking all around me both ways and looking 
outward, but I must look within. Look at myself. 
Spurgeon said all our enemies are comprehended 
under three heads: The world, the flesh and the 
devil. He said: "The devil is a cunning old 
enemy. O, how cunning he is ! but by the 
grace of God I can conquer the devil. This old 
world," he adds, "is a multitudinous affair with 



St. Paul's Last Words. 261 

ten thousand things to attract and seduce me, but 
by the grace of God I can conquer the world. 
But," he said, " Good Lord, deliver me from my- 
self." 

Nine-tenths of your trouble and my trouble is 
not on the outside at all. It is inside. There 's 
where the trouble is. As I heard a brother say 
to-day : " You can go out in the world as much as 
you please, but you had better mind how you get 
the world into you." Sometimes we mislocate 
things, like the good old brother that called on 
Bishop Wightman. Down in Mobile, Alabama, the 
bishop had been holding conference, and a good old 
brother came up to him in his room one day and 
said to the bishop : " I have n't been to my Church 
in two years. I haven't been out at all in that 
time." " Well," said the bishop, " why is that, 
brother." " Why," said he, " they have got the 
devil right behind the pulpit." " What?" he says, 
"got the devil right behind the pulpit?" "Yes," 
he says, " they have. Just as soon as I walk into 
the church the first thing I see is the devil right 
behind the pulpit." " Why, brother," said the 
bishop, " what in the world do you mean?" " Why," 
he says, "it's the organ they've got in there." 
"Well," said Bishop Wightman, in his polite way, 
"I guess when you go into the church the devil is 
in there sure enough, but you do n't locate him right. 
He 's not in there right behind the pulpit, but he's 
in you. He 's in you. You 've mislocated things. 
There 's the trouble." 

I heard a good old brother say once that when 



262 Sermons and Sayings. 

a man got mad with him, he always spoke kind 
words and said kind things. " Why," said he, 
" when a man wants to raise a difficulty with me 
and talk bad things to me, if I get mad, the devil 
will come out of that fellow into me, and he '11 
divide devils with me. He 's got enough for both." 
And the trouble with humanity is that they do n't 
locate things right. And without locating your 
enemy, you can never fight him successfully. That's 
the truth. The wisest general in this whole war 
was the general, not that knew so much how his 
troops were arranged, but who disposed his troops 
by the arrangement of his enemy's troops, so that 
his strongest point was just opposite the strongest 
point of his enemy. And the Christian man, who 
is best equipped to fight the devil, is the Christian 
man who not only knows the strength of the devil, 
but knows exactly where he is located and all 
about him. 

Watch ! Your trouble, if rightly located, is 
within and not without you. I would rather fight 
a thousand enemies outside of the fort than to fight 
one enemy inside of the fort. There are more dan- 
gers on the inside. And now let us see what we 
have inside to betray us. 

Well, let 's see ! Is there any body here troubled 
with a spirit of neglect ? That is a fearful enemy 
on the inside — the spirit of neglect. I do n't care 
what else you have or do n't have — if you have got 
that you are betrayed. As I have said before, 
you may take the best man in this city, he may be 
every thing you want him to be, but you just let 



St. Paul's Last Words. 263 

him neglect to pay his debts and there is n't any 
body in this town will have any respect for him. 
Is n't that true ? And we must reach the point 
w r here we see that the strength of the Christian is 
in the earnest, persistent^ discharge of every duty 
that God enjoins upon us. 

Neglect! Neglect to pray; neglect to read the 
Bible ; neglect to walk uprightly before God; neglect 
any Christian duty — the man who does it, does it at 
the cost of his soul. The spirit of neglect! Now 
if you take a man who has prayed night and morn- 
ing in his family, just get him to leave it off at night, 
say for instance, or leave it off in the morning, for in- 
stance; and just let him to neglect it a time or two, 
and you know that the next thing that will happen 
is that he will quit it altogether. Just let a fellow 
neglect his prayer-meeting two or three times, and 
he gets so he won't w 7 ant to go at all. Just let a 
man neglect to read his Bible for a few days, and 
he '11 get so he won't want to look at his Bible at all. 
O, the spirit of neglect ! It has cost millions of souls ! 

Neglect! And every time Christ prefigured 
judgment, the fellow that was condemned was con- 
demned for neglect — every one of them — and in no 
instance was one condemned for w T hat he had done, 
but condemned for what he had not done. 

Neglect ! You let a man begin to neglect his 
business — it goes right down. Let a man begin to 
neglect his religion — it goes right down. Let the 
member of a Church begin to neglect prayer-meet- 
ing, he goes right down to zero. Let the member 
of the Church begin to neglect to pay the preacher, 



264 Sermons and Sayings. 

and the first thing you know he *s a pauper. Do n't 
you see how the thing goes? And I tell you all, 
in every part and department of religious life, 
aggressiveness and fidelity is found in the fact that 
we do not leave any gaps down, but put them all up. 

Neglect ! Well, then, I will watch not only the 
spirit of neglect that might take possession of me, 
but I will watch my tongue. O, me ! these tongues 
of ours give us more trouble than any thing and 
every thing else in the world ! It is n't what we 
do, but it's what we say that keeps us in trouble 
every time. It's what we say. I will watch my 
tongue. I declare sometimes I almost wish I 
hadn't any tongue. O, me! if we just had some 
way of regulating every word we utter, as a Presi- 
dent can recall some minister or some consul that 
he had sent off somewhere — O, what a grand thing 
that would be ! Brethren, I 'd spend the next ten 
years in recalling — I think I would — I 'd be busy 
at it, I 'd be busy ; and the only way I can do now 
is to watch my tongue. And I declare to you, if a 
man opens his door his dog runs out in the street 
before he knows it. It is astonishing how many 
things will come up, and come when he least ex- 
pects it, upon his tongue. 

I will watch my tongue. I will watch my 
temper. The noun " temper," is not in the Bible 
at all. The verb " to temper," is in the Bible. 
Do you know where we get that idea of the word 
" temper?" We get it from the blacksmith's shop, 
where the blacksmith, for instance, is shaping an 
ax and upsetting the blade of it ; he heats the 



St. Paul's Last Words. 265 

blade again and pushes it down into the water, and, 
taking it out, he watches it take its color, and again 
he pushes it into the water and takes it out and 
watches it takes it color, and then directly he passes 
it to the hand of the farmer and says: "I think 
that is tempered, but I do n't know. If you will 
grind it and take it out to that knotty pine log and 
throw it in a time or two I will be able to tell you 
whether it is tempered or not." And the farmer 
takes up the ax, and goes out to the knotty pine 
log and strikes it a time or two, and it is full of 
notches, and the edge all turned and gone. He 
takes it back to the blacksmith and says : " You 
missed it this time; look here, it is notched all over 
with gaps." And the blacksmith takes it and puts 
it in the fire again and tests it, and when the owner 
takes it out to the log, its edge is all right and he 
says: "This edge is perfect." That is where we 
get our idea of temper. 

Many a time we have had our dispositions in 
the shop, and we have upset them and we have 
tempered them, and now we say, " Well, now, I 
never will get that way any more ; I have got the 
edge all right this time ; I got it tempered up in 
every respect," and the first old knotty log we get to, 
away it goes and the notches are all broke out and 
the edge is turned off, and we say, " La, me, it 's of 
no use for me to try at all ; I did worse this time 
than I ever did before." Have n't you ever felt 
that ? O, this temper of ours ! A good temper will 
stand any thing without the breaking out of a gap 
or the turning of the edge. 

23 



266 Sermons and Sayings. 

There is a great difference between good nature 
and good temper. I have heard people say, " O, 
that person has less temper than any body I ever 
saw." Well, he is of less account than any body 
you ever saw, if you mean by that he is simply good- 
natured. I tell you it takes a man with immense 
temper, and when that temper is of the right sort, 
then it is you've got the finest character 
this world ever saw. I heard a lady say about a 
cook once, "That is the best- natured, kindest, 
cleverest, best girl in this world, and the only thing 
I have against her is, she is of no account in the 
world, that you ever saw." That 's the only thing 
she has against her, " She is no account in the 
world, that you ever saw." 

I like temper, but I want it to be on the edge 
right, and I want to be sure that that temper is 
managed right, and we can only have good tempers 
with vigilant, watchful care over them. The best 
way I ever managed my temper was to clinch my 
teeth together and not let my tongue run a bit. 
Your tongue is a sort of a revolving fan to the fire, 
and the first time you let your tongue go, you are 
gone. Did you ever try to clinch your teeth this 
way together and try to keep a padlock on your 
tongue when you felt as if you were going to get 
mad? Did you ever try to sit down on your tongue 
once ? If you '11 do it, you Ml be astonished. 

I will watch my temper, I will watch my tongue, 
I will watch my disposition, I will watch within, I 
will watch without, I will be vigilant, I won't be 
surprised by any thing. I am going to see my 



St. Paul's Last Words. 267 

enemy approach, I am going to watch him as he 
comes, and I am going to meet him as he comes. 
I thought after I was converted and went to 
preaching, that it was a man's duty to defend him- 
self, and a man has to get mad always to do that; 
and I recollect a time or two when I got what I 
thought to be an insult, and there was a personal 
fracas. Well, the last one I had I got into the fuss 
all over, and it seemed as if the Lord had about 
turned me loose for good, and I just said: "Good 
Lord, if you take me back I tell you what I '11 do; 
I will never get mad with any man on the face of 
the earth until he treats me worse than I have 
treated you." Well, sir, I have been now at it 
eleven years since I had the difficult}, and I never 
found a man yet that treated me worse than I 
treated the Lord, and until I do I am going tq, 
stay in a good humor with humanity. That is my 
doctrine. So I often think of the incident where 
Talmage went to the father of a boy and said : " My 
brother, your son " — a little boy about ten years 
old — " wants to join my Church. What do you 
say ?" " O, no," said the father, " he does n't want 
it ; he is too young ; he does n't know what he is 
doing." After a while he consented, and Talmage 
told him that he had joined the Church. About 
three months after that the father met Talmage, 
and he said: " There, Dr. Talmage, Ltold you that 
my little boy ought not to have joined the Church." 
"Why?" said Dr. Talmage. " Why," he said, "no 
later than yesterday I caught him in a point-blank 
lie." "You did?" "Yes." "How old were you 



268 Sermons and Sayings. 

when you joined the Church ?" He said: " I did n't 
join the Church until I was a grown man." "Well," 
he asked, "how many lies have you told since you 
joined the Church?" "Well," he said, "that's a 
gray horse of another color. I never thought 
about that. That makes quite a difference, doesn't it." 

I will watch and watch in all directions, and see 
to it every day of my life that I watch the ap- 
proaches of every enemy, and I'll fight them as 
they come. 

Well, when St. Paul tells me to manifest always 
and possess always this watchful, vigilant spirit, 
then he says, " Endure afflictions." It is one thing 
to do the will of God and it is quite another thing 
to suffer the will of God. Almost any body is 
willing to be a hammer and strike for God, but 
very few people are willing to be an anvil and be 
struck for God. And there is quite a difference 
between the two. Almost any body is willing to 
go out and knock any body else down for God, but 
are you willing to be knocked down for God ? That 
is the question. 

I think one of the most impressive things I ever 
heard was of a young man belonging to the Young 
Men's Christian Association who was standing out 
on the sidewalk in a city, handing dodgers to folks 
out in the street, and pointing up to the room 
where they were going to hold the service. A gentle- 
man who walked along with the crowd saw this 
young man hand a dodger to a fellow, and the man 
peeled away with his fist and had like to have 
knocked him down on the sidewalk, but the young 



St. Paul's Last Words. 269 

man regained his foothold and was ready with a 
dodger as another came along. Directly another one 
slapped him in the face as he gave him a dodger, 
and the gentleman became interested in watching 
how he took it; and he said he staid there, and, in a 
few minutes, he put a dodger into a man's hand, and 
the man caught him and mashed him right down on 
the ground, and tore one of his coat-sleeves off, and 
bruised him up generally. But he got up and had 
another dodger ready for the next man that came 
along. And the stranger went up in the room and 
heard a young man talk, and he said, " Gentlemen, 
I never heard a sermon in my life yet that im- 
pressed me, but I stood out here before your door 
and saw how the roughs mistreated that young man 
over there, and I saw the spirit in which he ac- 
cepted it, and I walked in here to your meet- 
ing, and I want the very same spirit that made that 
boy take all that in the spirit which he did." 

Ah, brethren, " Endure affliction." It is the 
hardest thing in the world to do so. Humanity 
wants to fight back and kick back and talk back. 
I have felt that a thousand times, and I never 
fought back or kicked back or talked back in my 
life that I was not sorry that I did it. The best 
thing is to stand and hold out and let your enemy 
kick himself to death, and he will soon do that 
if you will hold right still. A soldier in the last 
war said: "One of the hardest things I had to do 
was to lie still under fire." And this affliction here 
is nothing but the bearing and pressure and weight 
of the " tribulum." That tribulum we get from the 



270 Sermons and Sayings. 

old threshing-floor where the wheat was spread out 
in the straw on the floor, and where a man got a 
big long hickory pole and shaved it down thin in 
the middle so it would have a spring to it, and he 
came down on the wheat and beat away there by 
the hour; and that was the "tribulum" coming, 
down on the wheat. Do you know what he was 
up to ? He was getting the wheat separated from 
the straw and chaff. The tribulum is the weight, 
you see, and when God comes down hard with the 
tribulum he is just beating the wheat out of the 
straw and chaff, and the great astonishment to me 
is that the Lord will beat away so hard and so long 
to get as little wheat as there is in us. And God 
is obliged to be patient and, with tender mercy, 
to beat sixty years on some of us and never get 
more than half a peck of wheat after sixty years. 

"Endure affliction." That is it. Bear what- 
ever is sent upon you; and I will tell you there is 
nothing like affliction. Many a time a man has 
grown careless and godless and worldly in the 
Church, and the Lord has tried every fair means to 
touch him and move him. And there is a man now. 
The doctor says : " I am sure it is typhoid fever," 
and on the fifteenth day he says to his wife: "His 
case is getting a little doubtful." On the twentieth 
day the doctor says : " You may prepare for the 
worst." He hears the whispering — he is lying there 
on his bed, and the old clock ticking so loud there 
on the mantel — he hears the doctor talking to his 
wife just outside of the room door, and he can see 
his wife's lip quiver and see her wipe the tear from 



St. Paul's Last Words. 271 

her eye, and he heard the doctor say : " You can 
prepare for the worst. " The twenty-first morning 
the doctor says, " He is a shade better, the crisis is 
come, he is turning, there is a chance for him." 

The thirty-fifth day he is sitting up in a big old 
arm-rocker, with his dressing coat on, and his wife 
gone out of the room, and the children gone out of 
the room, and he says : " Well, thank God, I am 
up one more time in this world ;" and he gets up 
and walks to the door by the help of the chair that 
he drags along with him ; he turns the key and 
locks it, and he walks back and he kneels down be- 
tween the arms of that old chair and he says : 
" Thank God ; I am well one more time, getting 
well. He has spared my life, and now, God, on my 
knees I promise you, I am going to make a better 
member of the Church and a better father and a 
better husband than I have ever made." And he 
gets up off his knees and God blesses him, and 
he claps his hands and says : " Glory to God ! He 
is so good to me." God had to take that fellow 
and put him on a forty days' case of typhoid fever 
to get him where he could bless him. Do n't you see ? 

O, how much goodness in the Lord ! He won't 
let us be lost until he has done his very best on 
us. I tell you, take almost any fellow and take 
him over a coffin a time or two and turn him 
loose and he will hit the ground running every 
time. He will do better. 

" Endure affliction." Sometimes it doesn't last 
very long. I recollect a case down in my town 
where I was pastor. I worked on a fellow all 



272 Sermons and Sayings. 

during the meeting, could n't do any thing with 
him, but he was taken down with bilious fever and 
he got to death's door. They thought he was gone. 
And, O, what promises he made that he would do 
better if he got well. And two or three weeks 

after he got better I said: ""Brother B , how 

are you getting along?" He said: "I am getting 
better all the time." " Well," I said, " how about 
your soul ?" " Well," he says, " I 'm afraid that 
isn't doing much better." "Didn't you promise 
the Lord that you w 7 ould do better if you got 
well?" "Yes," he said, "Mr. Jones, I did, but I 
tell you a fellow is going to promise 'most any 
thing when he gets down as far as I did." 
" Endure affliction." Whatever is sent upon you 
bear without a word, for I declare to you there is 
nothing like patience under affliction. When the 
Lord's providence touches us, let us not fight, but lean 
up against God's arms, and perhaps he will lay the 
rod down and won't strike a lick. The best way 
to fight God is to run up to God. I found out 
when I was twelve years old that when my father 
wanted to lick me, the closer I got to him the 
better. I found that out. 

St. Paul next says, " Do the work of an evan- 
gelist." Now you say, " That just had reference to 
Timothy; that does not have a reference to us at 
all." Do you know that God intends in the salva- 
tion of every soul that you should be propagandists 
yourselves? Did you ever think of that? The 
trouble is, you have turned the world over to us 
preachers, and you have turned it over to a sorry 



St. Paul's Last Words, 273 

set, and we are not half running it, God knows. But 
I reckon we do the best we can with the material on 
hand. There is some hickory the Lord himself 
could not make an ax-handle out of unless he makes 
the hickory over again. 

We preachers have had charge of the Churches and 
the salvation of this world now, in a sense, for eighteen 
hundred years, and we have just gotten one man in 
every twenty-eight to profess to be a Christian, and 
only about one in those twenty-eight is one when 
you weigh him up right. We are making big head- 
way, ain 't we ? We preachers are good clever men 
and do the best we can, but God never intended 
that the world should be handed over to us. He in- 
tends that every converted man shall be a preacher 
in a sense, going out and doing work as an evange- 
list. Suppose that every member of the Church 
should this January say : " God helping me, I will 
win one soul during this year for Christ." Then the 
membership next January will be double if that 
promise is observed. And if the promise were re- 
newed then, on the succeeding January the member- 
ship will be four times as many. And on and on 
and on and in this way, before your heads grow gray 
all over this Church could turn this whole city to 
Christ. That is geometrical progression, and God is 
going to convert this world just that way. Listen ! 
When one-half of the world is converted to God and 
that half says : " One soul apiece to-morrow for 
Christ," and all go out and bring one soul to Christ, 
then every body is converted and a nation is born 
to God in a day ! You see how it works? 



274 Sermons and Sayings. 

One soul a year ! It does look as if every 
Christian ought to win one soul a year, or go out 
of the business. If I could not do that I would 
just quit in utter despair, I would. And I want to 
say to you all to-night just this : Just a few years 
ago, down in Georgia, God stooped down and touched 
my poor, ruined, wilted, blasted soul and called it 
back to life. I started out the weakest, frailest 
thing, and I declare that when I went to Atlanta to 
join the conference I had no idea they would take 
me. I could not see how they would take such a 
fellow as I was and put him to work; and when 
they put me on a circuit I was the happiest man 
you ever saw; and when I got nearly home — I had 
not thought about what the thing would pay — a 
man stepped up and said : " Jones, that circuit they 
have sent you on never paid but $65 a year to its 
preacher." I listened, but that statement did not 
bother me a bit. I was happy that I had a place 
to go to work in. I commenced preaching six or 
seven or eight times a week, preaching and meeting 
in private houses, schools and Churches, working 
as hard as I could and working right on. I started 
out to do my duty toward God and man, and the 
three years I spent in that work were the happiest 
three years, it seems now, of all my life. And God 
saw to it that we had three square meals a day and 
respectable clothes, and that is as much as you have. 
Do you have any more ? If you do, where do you 
put it ? Some of you put it in the bank ; some in 
railroad stock. Yes! 

I do not reckon there has been a mind in this 



St. Paul's Last Words. 275 

century that has been under higher pressure than 
William H. Vanderbilt. There were many things 
about that man I honor — many things about his life 
I would have the business men of this world emu- 
late. I will say this much about him : the last even- 
ing, when he dropped out of his chair and fell to 
the floor, when the railroad president was talking to 
him — when he sat in that chair he was the richest 
man in America ; w r hen he fell on that floor he was 
as poor as I am. When I leave this world I want 
my friends to say, " I am glad there is a good man 
gone to heaven." When Vanderbilt died every 
body wanted to know, " How will it affect the Stock 
Exchange?" That seemed to be the only question 
in New York City, " How will it affect the Stock 
Exchange ?" They did not seem to c'are much 
about the man. They did not seem to have much 
to say about his funeral. The whole thing rested 
as on a pivot on that one question : " How will his 
death affect the stock market ?" 

Now, sir, as God is my judge, all along through 
my religious life, the one burning desire of my soul 
has been to see others brought to Christ. I have 
worked on and on and on, and I tell you, the happiest 
moments of my life have been the moments when I 
have seen men's souls given to Christ. The one 
earnest prayer of my life has been, u God help me 
to help souls to Christ." Brothers, how do you 
feel about that? I may gather together a fortune, 
but it may curse my children ; but if I gather souls 
to Christ, how grand that is. 

This recalls the dream of a young lady — I 



276 Sermons and Sayings. 

do not go much on dreams, but there was some- 
thing impressive about this one. A young lady 
dreamed that she died and went to heaven. 
As she stood around the great white throne 
she saw that every one there had on a beau- 
tiful crown, and that beautiful stars decked each 
crown. She approached a sister spirit and said, 
" What do these stars represent in these crowns ?" 
The sister spirit replied, " These stars represent the 
souls we have been instrumental in saving," and 
she said, "I thought I reached up and pulled off 
my crown and it was blank, and I began to be mis- 
erable in heaven. And all at once I awoke and 
praised God that I was still out of heaven, and I 
said, i I will spend the rest of my days in winning 
stars for my crown of rejoicing in the sweet by 
and by/" 

How many of us here to-night if we should die 
now and go to heaven would wear a starless crown 
forever? May God help me as I journey through 
life to gather souls to God, that they may be stars — 
not in my crown, but, blessed be God, I would put 
them all in my Master's crown, and say to him : 
"You are worthy of them. You shed your blood 
and died that they might be redeemed." 

Lastly St. Paul said : " Make full proof of thy 
ministry." I do love to see a soul go and work in 
earnest for Christ and work on until the work is 
completed, and then shout over the results. That is 
just what this means. I will illustrate this. I can 
get through quicker in that way. I had once in my 
charge, when I was a pastor, a precious good wife 



St. Paul's Last Words. 277 

and mother. Fourteen years before that she mar- 
ried a young man, sober and industrious; but after 
their marriage he commenced associating with drink- 
ing men. He soon began to drink himself, and he 
led a very dissipated life for several years, and finally 
he was taken home with delirium tremens. One 
morning two doctors came and examined him, and 
they called his wife aside and said : " Madam, your 
husband will die to-day." She looked at the doctor 
and said, " No, he won't die to-day." " Well," they 
said, " madam, these symptoms that are on him 
never fail. He will die." " No," she said, " doctor, 
he won't die." "How do you know?" they asked. 
She said, " I have been praying for fourteen years 
to God to convert that man and save him before he 
dies. And," she said, " I have prayed earnestly 
and with faith, and I know he is not going to die. 
I do not care a cent about your symptoms." That 
evening the doctors came back and examined her 
husband, and said he was better. She said, " I have 
not been uneasy about him. I knew God had not 
converted him, and I knew God would not let him 
die until he was converted. If he were to die in 
the condition he is in, I would be an infidel. I 
could never have believed that God hears and an- 
swers prayer. I have been praying for his con- 
version for fourteen years, and I knew God would 
not let him die before he was converted." 

The man got better and he was converted, and 
he led a pure, good life for two years, and then, 
under some fearful temptation, he fell and began 
drinking again. She went back to God and prayed : 



278 Sermons and Sayings. 

" Good Lord, save my poor husband at any cost. I 
will work my hands off to support my seven chil- 
dren. My God, save my poor husband. I do not 
care what becomes of us." 

Two or three months afterward her husband 
was taken with articular rheumatism, the most 
fearful kind of rheumatism that ever afflicted 
humanity. There he suffered day after day, and he 
turned his heart again to God. He was the most 
meek and patient sufferer you ever saw, just trust- 
ing in God every moment. One morning when his 
wife was standing by he said : " Good-bye, precious 
wife. The moments are coming when I shall leave 
you, and when I shall leave you — and I owe it all 
to you and Christ — I shall go to heaven and pass 
into the joys of the blessed." 

She stood over him until his last breath had 
gone, and his face was placid and calm in death. 
As soon as she saw sure enough that he had gone 
into eternity, she clasped her hands and cried: 
" Glory to God, he is saved ! Now I will work 
my hands off to support my children." And that 
woman to-day is a precious Christian mother of 
seven children, and she is training them for a 
better life. 

Mothers and sisters, when you get in earnest 
you will see this world with all its glitter and 
fearful influences. Now let us say : " I am going 
to pray for some persons and will never stop until 
they are converted." Will you do that and interest 
yourselves in souls around us ? O, that every one 
in this meeting would save a soul for Christ ! 



Sermon XIV. 

ESCAPE FOR THY LIKE. 

"And it came to pass when they had brought them forth 
abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life ; look not behind 
thee, neither stay thou in all the plain ; escape to the moun- 
tain lest thou be consumed."— Gen. xix, 17. 

I HAVE but three questions that I would propound 
to any man as he stands up preaching righteousness 
to me. The first question I would ask any minis- 
ter of the Gospel is this : " Are you posted upon 
the subject which you are discussing? Do you 
know what you are talking about ?" And when 
this question is satisfactorily answered, I will put a 
second one to him : " Do you mean kindly toward 
me ?" And then I have but one more to ask, and 
that is : " Do you live what you preach ?" With 
these three questions answered in the affirmative, I 
throw open the doors of my heart and conscience 
to any man who will so answer them. 

We have selected as the text for this evening 
the four words of the seventeenth verse of the nine- 
teenth chapter of the Book of Genesis : " Escape 
for thy life." 

There is implanted in the bosom of every man 
an instinctive love of life ; and also implanted by 
the hand of God in this same bosom, the fear of 
death. We all love life; we all fear death. 
There's only one thing in the universe that's 
stronger than my love of life and my dread of death, 

279 



280 Sermons and Sayings. 

and that's despair, and suicide is the last retreat for 
despair. I need n't stop here to argue the proposi- 
tion that men love life and dread death. The 
thousands and the millions of dollars that are spent 
yearly for physicians, and remedies and patent med- 
icines and mineral springs, and the sanitary features 
of your cities and your towns, is practical proof that 
I assert the truth. 

I might stop here long enough to say that there 
are certain physical substances that we know per- 
petuate life; and that there are certain physical 
substances which produce death. There is such a 
thing as wholesome food for the physical man, and 
there is such a thing as poison — one perpetuates life, 
physical life, and the other produces death. These 
are plain propositions we all understand. 

Man in his very nature is a trinity in unity; he 
has a physical being, an intellectual being, and an 
immortal or spiritual being. Just as it is true, there- 
fore, that certain physical substances, wholesome in 
their nature, tend to perpetuate life, and certain 
poisons will produce physical death, just so certain 
is it, also, that there are certain lines of moral con- 
duct that tend to perpetuate moral life, and certain 
lines of immoral conduct that produce moral death. 
If one is true the other 's true. Cincinnati, with all 
her boasted financial standing, with all her intelli- 
gence, and with all her art, presents the picture 
every day to your eyes that sin is debauching and 
dooming and damning your people. I have but to 
walk out on your streets with my eyes open, and 
with my ears open, and I can see that thousands of 



Escape for Thy Life. 281 

people are lost, whether there 's any death or hell, 
or not. They are lost to all that is good, and all 
that is pure, and all that is noble, and all that is 
true. 

Brother, when a man is lost to the true and the 
beautiful and the good, what deeper, darker hell 
would you have than that? The exhortation of 
this text is, " Escape for thy life." The significa- 
tion that is put on this text is that we should look 
at the power behind an exhortation like this. All 
that is beautiful and glorious in heaven on the one 
side, and all that is unutterable on earth and inex- 
pressible in hell is just behind this exhortation, 
" Escape for thy life." 

Sin is the one thing in this universe that can 
permanently damage a man, and eternally damn 
him. Disappointment may worry him, and grief 
may sadden him, and adversity may bring hardship 
and hunger to his life, but, blessed be God, sin is 
the only thing in the universe that can leave its 
permanent mark on character, a mark which shall 
last forever. 

We shall take the moral law, and we shall take 
the Ten Commandments as the basis, largely, in this 
discussion. I am ready to say here this evening 
that I believe God wrote the Ten Commandments 
on the tablets of stone, though the infidel may say 
that Moses wrote them, or that Hume, the historian, 
wrote them; but I care not who wrote them; the 
citizen in this State that does not live on a level 
with the Ten Commandments deserves to be in the 
penitentiary. 

24 



282 Sermons and Sayings. 

" The transgression of the law !" There can be 
no good citizenship where the Ten Commandments 
are infracted. There can be no such thing as safe 
political movement or social reform unless it is bot- 
tomed on the Ten Commandments, I stand on 
these Ten Commandments, brethren, and when this 
world burns to ashes I shall have a foundation as 
enduring as the God that made me. 

I will, however, discuss this in a practical way, 
and stand squarely on the Bible principle and on 
the God side of the questions. If you see this 
matter differently from what I do, it will be because 
you occupy a different standpoint. If you come up 
where I stand you will see it as I do. If I go 
down where you are I will see it as you see it, but 
I'm afraid to go down there any more. I'm afraid 
I might die there, and be lost forever. 

I. We will take up first the sin most commonly 
practiced among men, and that is the sin of profanity. 
O, what a fearful sin, in all its aggravated guilt and 
its general use in this land, is this sin of profanity. 
Old men swear, and young men swear, and women 
swear and children swear, and we 're almost a nation 
of swearers to-day as we walk up and down the 
land. I want to show you what a profane swearer 
is. I want to locate him ; I want to tree him this 
evening, and twist him out of his hole and let you 
see him as God and his angels see him. 

The sin of profanity ! I read in these Ten 
Commandments this : " Thou shalt not take the 
name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord 
will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in 



Escape for Thy Life. 283 

vain." " Let your communication be Yea, yea, 
Nay, nay ; for whatsoever is more than these 
cometh of evil." I will read you another of the 
commandments, "Thou shalt not steal." Here are 
two commandments, "Thou shalt not take the 
name of the Lord thy God in vain," and "Thou 
shalt not steal." You will break this first com- 
mandment, but you won't break this second one. 
You '11 swear, but you won't steal. Why ? Sup- 
pose I say that a man who will steal will lie and get 
drunk and curse. Well, you say, " That 's a fact." 
Let us comment on this thing : A man who will 
swear will lie and get drunk and steal. "But," 
you say, "you mustn't go back that way. You 
may come this way as much as you please, but if 
you go back that way you'll get a fuss on your 
hands." Well, brethren, I've often heard it said: 
" It 's a poor rule that won't work both ways." 
Let's run that down a little further. 

There 's a man sitting out there that will lie, but 
he won't steal. He will blaspheme the name of God 
and smut his lips with other utterances, and stilt 
himself upon his "honor," and yet that same fellow 
would curse the virtue of the purest girl in this 
city to-night if he thought he could do it with- 
out being overtaken in his guilt. There 's many 
a man in this country stilting himself upon his 
honor. There are two commandments he will break, 
and one he won't break over. I have logic, I have 
human life squarely on my side when I say that 
when a man that has a condition of the heart and 
life that will let him persistently break one command- 



284 Sermons and Sayings. 

merit, all you 've got to do is to turn him loose and 
he '11 break them all. 

" Thou shalt not swear and steal." God said 
both with all the power of his nature. That man 
says : " I swear, but I won't steal." Why ? u I can 
swear all around." Thou shalt not swear. "That's 
nothing in my way." Thou shalt not steal. A 
fellow does n't go around that much before he strikes 
the sheriff and the judge and the jail. Do n't you 
see? Is it because you are afraid that the sheriff 
and the judge and the jail are round there ? I want 
you to see this — that 's all ! I assert it, with all the 
sincerity of my nature, that a man who will break 
one commandment habitually and persistently, if 
you '11 make every thing else even, he '11 break 
them all. He doesn't care about God. 

I made this proposition one day : " I want 
every fellow who went into the rebel army cursing, 
and did n't steal any thing, to stand up." Directly a 
fellow stood up over in the corner, and I said : 
" They must have kept things out of your reach, 
old fellow." That old fellow told a lie, or they 
kept things mighty close — one thing or the other. 
You take one of these swearing men at home and 
put him in the army and he will go out and steal 
a bee-gum and then he'll steal a sheep and stay 
with a lewd woman all night and disgrace himself 
before God and men and angels. I tell you, brother, 
that sin in its fearful influence permeates our system, 
and when the cancer breaks out on your tongue it 
is in your blood from head to foot. If you stop 
cursing and put a salve on your tongue it will 



Escape for Thy Life. 285 

break out on your hand, and you'll steal something. 
It's in you, and you've got to get it out. 

Profanity ! How much there is of it in this 
land ! A mother sends her little boy down street 
to get a spool of thread, and the little fellow walks 
three blocks, and O! he can't get back to his in- 
nocent mother until some wretch has sowed his little 
heart full of the seed of profanity ! 

O! how much profanity curses this State and 
this country ! I often think of the grandmother of 
little Willie, who was on the train which stopped 
for a few minutes for some cause, and the two gen- 
tlemen who were carrying on their conversation, 
swore and swore awfully, and the grandmother 
jabbed the ends of her fingers into the ears of little 
Willie and compressed them tight, so that Willie 
would not hear their awful profanity. Willie sat 
still for a little while and then he shook his head 
and moved about, and he was so restless he would 
not let his grandmother hold her fingers in his 
ears; so she rushed up the aisle and said to the 
two swearers : " Gentlemen, my little Willie won't 
let me hold my thumbs in his ears, and I would n't 
have him hear this awful talk for the world; it's 
the height of impudence, and shows how you were 
raised, by sitting among strangers and pouring out 
your profanity in the ears of people." I could 
travel in perfect peace but for this one thing! 
These railroads have got up their sleeping-cars 
and their mail and baggage and express-cars, 
and they just lack one more car. I want them to 
put on a cursing-car for black-mouthed travelers. 



286 Sermons and Sayings. 

Profanity ! Profanity! I recollect on the streets 
of my own town, when I was a boy, we were all 
standing on the corner, and the minister passed by 
just as I swore. He laid his hand on my shoulder 
and said : " Young man, do n't curse that man. It 
is just like holding a coal of fire in your hand and 
squeezing your fingers on it and saying i Coal of 
fire, burn some one else.'" I always thought of 
that afterwards, that it was " Coal of fire, burn some 
one else." That fearful, excuseless sin — profanity ! 
When the devil wants to catch a good man he baits 
his hook and covers it up, and then they do n't bite, 
but when he wants to catch a profane swearer, he 
throws in the naked hook, and says, u Fool, gobble 
it down," and the fool gobbles it down. 

Profanity! What does it pay you? Nobody 
thinks any more of you because you swear. It 
does n't help you in business. It does n't make 
any body think any more of you; it doesn't make 
your wife think any more of you. If you are a 
professed swearer and user of profanity, you just 
lack that much of being a gentleman, I don't care 
what else you may be. 

This excuseless and useless profanity! Boys, 
let's assert our manhood, and our sense of justice 
and the good that 's in us, and let's say this after- 
noon, " I have sworn my last oath. Whatever else 
I may be doomed for, I won't curse my way to 
hell." Boys, let's quit this profanity. There's no 
manhood in it. There's no beauty in it. There's 
no business in it. 

I heard a drummer say once that he went out 



Escape for Thy Life. 287 

on the road with another drummer, who had differ- 
ent samples and was in a different line of business. 
Said he : " At every town I sold goods this man 
did n't sell any. At last, after he had failed to 
make a trade at a store I went to, when he walked 
out the proprietor said, 'Who is that man?' I 
told him. ( Well/ said he, 'you can just tell every 
drummer on the road that none of these cursing, 
blackguard fellows need come about my store to 
sell goods; I'll quit the business before I buy any 
goods from one of them/ The other drummer 
asked me, 'What's the matter?' Said I, 'It's not 
your firm, or your samples, but it's you. That man 
told me he would n't buy from a profane drummer.' 
The drummer said to this, 'If that's so, I'll quit 
now.' And he went on his way and sold after- 
wards as many goods as any other drummer on the 
road." 

Escape profanity. It will degrade you here, and 
damn you hereafter. Escape profanity. Men, let's 
say to-day, from the depths of our heart, " I'll never 
swear again. Whatever else I may be guilty of I 'm 
done with profanity forever." 

II. How much Sabbath-breaking is done in this 
country ! I want to locate you all for yourselves. 
I'll give you the worst Sabbath-breaking places in 
the country, one by one: San Francisco, first; New 
Orleans, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis. That's 
their order. Bad order, too. San Francisco, first; 
New Orleans — the very cess-pool of hell itself, sec- 
ond ; Cincinnati, third. I'll tell you another thing, 
With your theaters turned loose, with your bar- 



288 Sermons and Sayings. 

rooms turned loose, and your places of amusement 
turned loose on the Sabbath, and your base ball on 
the Sabbath, let me tell you, you're putting the 
red flag on the track. You put a red flag down on 
the track of that Cincinnati Southern Railroad, and 
when the engineer comes thundering around the 
curve and sees the flag two hundred yards in front 
of him, he reverses his engine, shuts the throttle 
dead tight, claps the air brakes on every wheel, and 
he '11 burst that boiler into ten thousand pieces be- 
fore he 'd run up to within less than one hundred 
yards of that red flag. That flag means death and 
destruction to him and to all the passengers on the 
train behind him. I tell you when you people come 
sweeping around the curve of Sabbath-breaking and 
desecration, and instead of your city officers uphold- 
ing the law they were appointed to uphold, they 
are defying the law; you may see the red flag down 
the track, and you '11 have to reverse engine and 
down brakes or you 're lost. 

I '11 tell you when the crackling flames and the 
dense smoke of your burning court-house lit up the 
sky on that terrible night of the riot, God ran up 
the red flag and said, " Call a halt." You '11 never 
have law and order and safety and good govern- 
ment in this city until the strong arm of the law 
is upheld, and every violator of the law shall suffer 
the penalty, be he a millionaire or be he the poorest 
foreigner in the city. You can see it in the air. 
We're nearing a reform. The theater men say, 
" We 're done Sabbath breaking." Brethren, hear 
me on this : The fact that these men have dese- 



Escape for Thy Life. 289 

crated God's day, and have kept it up as long as it 
would pay, and until the Law and Order League 
brought them to taw — the transgressions connected 
with their past doings blot out all the glory that 
they would have if they should be decent in the 
future. 

I tell you all, in God's name, this afternoon, 
forget not the commandment " Remember the Sab- 
bath day to keep it holy." May the Lord redeem 
this city from Sabbath-breaking. As an American 
I thank God for every foreigner that comes to this 
country, w r ho is a law-abiding citizen. I thank God 
for every single foreigner in America that is a rep- 
resentative of law and order and righteousness; 
but I deplore the fact that any country or govern- 
ment is emptying upon us men who desecrate the 
law of God and the law of man, and bring anarchy 
into our midst. 

Let me tell you: If all the sins and iniquity 
committed in Cincinnati on Sabbath were repro- 
duced in Atlanta the next Sabbath the whole con- 
cern would sleep in jail that night. In Georgia we 
have a God and a Sabbath, and they 're as sacred 
to us as our wives and our children. Men break 
the Sabbath in groups and sections, and they all join 
in trying to wipe it off the face of the earth. If 
you '11 find me a man that keeps the Sabbath holy, 
I w T ill show you a man who will keep every other 
day in the week holy. Show me a man who will 
desecrate the Sabbath, and I '11 show you a man 
who '11 desecrate every other day in the week. This 

is as true as that I 'm talking to you this evening. 

25 



290 Sermons and Sayings. 

May the Lord multiply the number of Sunday- 
keepers, and give us no other sort in this city. 

III. Gambling ! O, how much gambling there 
is in this country ! From the Louisiana State Lot- 
tery up, I commence at the bottom, they are gamb- 
ling! gambling! Let me tell you gamblers: The 
young man that wins at Louisiana State Lotterv 
$10,000, has lost his soul, and lost his character 
ninety-nine times out of a hundred. If I ever have 
a boy that's fool enough to buck against the Louis- 
iana Lottery, I want him to lose every dollar 
that he puts in. It will be better for him in the 
long run. 

The truth of the business is that a good, honest 
plowboy, who plows furrows in the field for $1 a 
week, is better than one of these fast young men in 
this city that gets his money questionably, to say 
the least! When the plowboy gets his dollar at 
the end of his week's work he goes home at night 
and to his room, and when he slips off his pants 
he puts them under his pillow, and the eagle on 
that dollar sings like a nightingale, and lulls him 
to sleep. I like an honest dollar. They 're the 
only dollars in this universe that will do a man and 
his family any good. 

Louisiana State Lottery, gambling at cards and 
speculating in " futures ! " I tell you these men who 
are called dealers in " futures " call it that to keep 
themselves from being regular blacklegs. I like the 
old greasy-deck plan the best. It is the more hon- 
est, for there you put up money on one side and 
then on the other, and things are in sight there with 



Escape foe Thy Life. 291 

a vengeance! Xo "bull" and "bear" business 
about that. These little Church fairs with their 
little gambling schemes will never reform this coun- 
try, and many of these things have set an example 
that has studded this country with gambling schemes 
and other dishonest transactions. Let's wash our 
hands and be honest if we starve to death! Let's 
earn our bread by the sweat of our brow! 

IV- The club-house, in this city is the place where 
you train many a fellow for the black-leg stable. 
Club-houses ! I pushed it on to these club fellows 
in St. Louis, and they got after me and said, " Jones, 
you '11 have to let up on this business." I said, " Come 
down to-night ; I 'm going to let down on you 
fellows with a vengeance !" There is n't a social 
club in this city but what has every thing in it 
that a good man will eat, and every thing in it that 
a bad man will drink. They have bar-rooms and 
card-rooms and billiard rooms, and there is noth- 
ing in God's universe that ever damned as many 
people as these three things. There's no logic in 
heaven or hell or on earth that a man can defend 
a club with ! I feel sorry for a man when he joins 
a club. I do that ! If you do make an impression 
on one of these club fellows, they ridicule him at 
the club, and they ridicule him out of it. You 
may call me narrow-minded and bigoted on these 
things, brethren, but the day will come when you 
will stand up like a man and say: "Jones, you're 
right on that !" 

The difference between the club bar-rooms and 
the other bar-rooms is that the latter are for the 



292 Sermons and Sayings. 

vagabondish drinkers. The club bar-rooms are be- 
hind the scenes a little, but they'll soon make vag- 
abonds out of their customers. They teach a fellow 
to drink and gamble, and then when he *s learned 
these things too well they kick him out. The 
meanest thing in the world is first to damn and 
ruin a fellow and then kick him out. You 've done 
that too. There are many of our Christian homes 
in this city that are but gambling-houses, where 
the children are trained to play cards. God pity 
the man that can't run his house without a pack of 
cards ! 

V. Licentiousness! This is a world of licen- 
tiousness all around us. A man in a certain town 
said to me, " Jones, there is n't a pure boy living in 
our city." I said, I 'm sorry. If one-half of our 
society is corrupt, O, then, when will the tidal wave 
of licentiousness begin to sweep over the other half 
of society? If our boys are all impure, when will 
this wild beast crush our daughters' virtue, and our 
mothers be no longer pure? God let my sweet 
children with their precious mother sleep in their 
graves before such a day ever comes to the United 
States of America. 

Licentiousness! As I look at this flood tide of 
uncleanliness sweeping over our country, O, what a 
harvest awaits us in the future ! Look at our 
asylums, our hospitals ! They 're full of the fruits 
of licentiousness ; and hear me, young man, that 
unholy alliance you have formed, the fruits of that 
alliance may be an innocent child born to you in 
licentiousness, and recollect, as the basest woman in 



Escape for Thy Life. 293 

Cincinnati bears that innocent child in her arms, 
that it 's your mother's grandchild and your sister's 
niece. 

Licentiousness ! Young man, hear me on this 
point. I want you to determine to say : " What- 
ever we are, God help us to be pure. I will take 
no liberties with any woman that God lets me lay 
my eyes upon any more than I would not have 
another man take with my wife, my mother, or my 
sister." 

The doctors of this country have said to many a 
young man : " You can 't be virtuous and be healthy." 
Is there a doctor here that ever said that to a young 
man? If there is I want to look him in the face 
and tell him " You are a liar of the deepest dye." 
My daughter, your daughter, has the same nature 
and the same constitution as your boy, and I dare 
you by all the power in the Bible to walk up to 
my daughter and tell her she can not be virtuous 
and be healthy ! 

Boys, let's be clean. Let's shun this licentious 
river that is sweeping so many to death and degra- 
dation and hell ! 

VI. Intemperance. I am expected to take sides 
everywhere on this moral question, and he who 
would confine the matter of whisky to politics is a 
fool or a rascal. It is not a political question any 
more than " Thou shalt not steal " is a political 
question. It is a question of morals and belongs to 
the Ten Commandments. In Georgia you slip up 
to the ear of the great God and ask him which side 
he is on, and then put me down on the side with 



294 Sermons and Sayings. 

God. When you have asked him, then slip up to 
the side of the suffering Nazarene that gave his 
blood and all for the amelioration of the race and 
for the salvation of men, and say, " Which side are 
you on?" and you need n't come back to me and 
ask me what side I am on, but just put me down 
on his side. 

Go to the grave of the best wife, the cruelty of 
whose drunken husband broke her heart, and ask 
that wife, " Which side are you on ?" and then put 
me by the side of that precious wife. Then dig 
open that little grave, three feet long, by the mother's 
side, and ask the little angel, "What side are you 
on ?" and then put me on the side of the child. If 
I am with God and the angels, and good women 
and children, blessed be God, then I am on the 
right side. 

Blessed be God for the privilege of taking sides 
on moral questions ! I ain't a politician, and you 
couldn't run after me fast enough to give me the 
presidency of the United States. I ask no higher 
honor than to preach righteousness and truth to the 
children of men. 

Let's us quit drinking, boys! A dram cup 
in my hand broke my father's heart! Quit 
drinking, boys! It'll drive the unhealthy roses 
from your cheeks, and they '11 never come back 
again! Quit drinking, boys! 




SAM W. SMALL. 



DELIVERANCE FROM BONDAGE. 



A SERMON BY SAMUEL W. SMALL. 



" And his name, through faith in his name, hath made 
this man strong, whom ye see and know ; yea, the faith which 
is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the pres- 
ence of you all." — Acts hi, 16. 

ON one occasion there came into the market place 
of a far Eastern city an aged and decrepit and 
travel-stained man, who was a stranger to them all. 
He wandered through the vast bazaar without 
seeming to regard or take notice of the vast stores 
of merchandise and wealth and the accumulated 
wondrous handicraft of the people. Aimlessly he 
threaded his w T ay about in that multitude until he 
attracted the attention of the people. Suddenly he 
stopped before one of the booths, where hung gilded 
cages in which had been imprisoned birds of pre- 
cious and sweetest song. They were flapping their 
little wings impatiently, and he listened intently 
that he might haply catch some note of their song: 
but thus imprisoned they refused to give forth any 
of the melody of their notes, but struggled and 
struggled ineffectually against the bars of their cage. 
Suddenly the old man put his hands in the folds 
of his garment and drew therefrom coin of a strange 
realm. He asked the price of a cage. He bought 
it, and opening the door he turned the feathered 
songster loose, and it fluttered its w T ings, so long 

295 



296 Sermons and Sayings. 

untried, and for a little while it balanced its slight 
body in. mid-air, until nature restored its powers of 
equilibrium, and then it mounted up and up and 
up, and with a glad song of joy circled above the 
heads of the multitude until it caught sight of the 
distant cloud-capped mountain, where its home had 
been, and then with its precious melody flowing 
from its soul it winged its way into the far and 
ethereal distance and was lost to sight. Thus one 
by one he bought these little birds, and thus one by 
one he loosed them, and they repeated the glad notes 
of surprise and took the same course back to their 
native mountain fastnesses : and he seemed to take a 
greater pleasure and a sweeter joy as each little 
prisoner regained its liberty, and the tears streamed 
down his travel-stained and dust-covered face. Those 
who stood by said to him, "Why dost thou do these 
strange things?" He said to them in reply, with 
a look of charity and joy indescribable on his face, 
" I was once a prisoner myself, and I know some- 
thing of the sweets of liberty." 

I, brethren, was once a prisoner myself, and now 
I have tasted something of the sweets of liberty in 
Christ, and with the precious memory of his mer- 
cies and his promises I stand before this multitude 
to-night and purchase with these promises the will- 
ing hearts of men, the liberty of their souls from 
bondage more despicable and deadly and more re- 
pressive of the natural melody of men's souls than 
were the gilded cages to the birds of this far East- 
ern mart. I have been under the bondage of sin, a 
bondage that was galling every moment almost; a 



Deliverance from Bondage. 297 

bondage from which there was eliminated every 
element of joy, and from which there seemed to be 
at times no avenue of escape. If you will pardon 
me, I will refer to myself. I will tell you some- 
thing of my experience, because I would have my 
young compatriots know it, and know it to the good 
of their soul. I would have my fellow-men who 
are in middle life with families hear it. I would 
have the veteran fathers of this community hear it. 
I was well born. I was given by kindly parents 
all the true and the religious culture that a boy 
could have in a loving home. I was instructed in 
right speaking. I was encouraged in right doing. 
I was inspirited at times to consider myself a child 
of God, and to recognize in my youth my responsi- 
bility to him. And when I had left my mother's 
side, and had left my father's counsel, and left the 
old hearth tree, and the family altar and gone out 
into the avenues of the world seeking, first, an edu- 
cation and afterwards position and prosperity, I fell 
into evil ways. With the strong and lusty passions 
of youth, in those whom I mingled with I found 
there were courses and ways, there were allurements 
and temptations that were strange to me; and I 
stood reliant only upon myself, forgetting the 
prayers and teachings of mother and father, and I 
was eager for a place, eager for the pleasures of this 
world, eager for the happiness and the enjoyments 
that I saw about me. And thus I easily fell in 
allurements ; thus easily fell from virtuous thoughts 
and virtuous acts, and from the virtuous course of 
mv life. 



298 Sermons and Sayings. 

The great bane, as I look back over my life, 
and conjure up the recollections of my past — the 
great bane of all my sinfulness, the great moving 
cause of all the moral iniquities I committed, was 
nothing more or less than this great Gorgon-headed 
evil that is devouring so many of the people of 
this land, and sowing broadcast sin and sorrow in 
this chosen nation of ours — the sin of intemper- 
ance. I thought that it would be manly to do as 
every man I saw about me did. I thought there 
would be some addition to my pleasure and expe- 
rience by going with them into their drinking 
places and indulging with them. I felt all the time 
that I had strength of will enough, that I had force 
of character enough to protect me from the ex- 
cesses that I could see other men had fallen into. 
I believed that when I reached a dangerous point, 
if ever I did, I could put on the brakes of my 
nature and stop. 

I went away to college, and there again fell 
into evil courses. I struggled at times with the 
innate manhood that was in me, and attempted to 
throw off the growing appetite for these things. 
When I came away, after I had graduated, and be- 
gan to enter among men and their pursuits, and 
endeavored to acquire a profession, I thought still 
that I must mingle with my fellow-men ; have some 
participation in their customs and in their habits; 
that I must bring myself into some sort of agree- 
ment and harmony with their ideas of social enjoy- 
ment, and I yielded again and again to the tempta- 
tions thus presented, and again and again I fell 



Deliverance from: Bondage. 299 

from my rectitude, and away from ideas that lin- 
gered with me of what was right and proper. And 
thus, day after day, time after time, these passions 
grew stronger and stronger within me. 

I could feel and see that I was falling, falling, 
falling all the time. I saw that there would not be 
left in me strength enough to save me, and I was 
unconscious at times of the fearful length to which 
I had fallen, but I would not look at the picture I 
knew I was presenting to others. I went on and 
on. I went until I brought tears from the eyes of 
my precious mother, until I brought fearful lines to 
her face, until I brought gray streaks into her beau- 
tiful hair, until I had brought the lines of care 
about her loving eyes; and until I knew I was 
drawing, drop by drop, the life-blood from her de- 
voted heart. I knew that my strong and manly 
father was suffering on my account tortures that he 
would not, in his courage, let the world know were 
gnawing at his heart and at his soul. 

I married a lovable woman. I married one 
who was of proud disposition; one who had high 
and noble traits of character ; one who had quick 
and responsive sensibilities; one to whom the very 
taint of any thing that was disreputable was like a 
knife stab to her heart ; but I disregarded the love 
and devotion of that precious wife. I went on 
unheeding her counsel, disregarding her prayers, 
and from day to day getting grosser and grosser in 
my appetites, and getting more brutal in my insen- 
sibility to her pleadings and her prayers. And 
when children came to bless my home, even the 



300 Sermons and Sayings. 

sight of them in their little cradles, unconscious in 
the first moments of their life, and with the smiles 
of God drawing responsive smiles from them — I 
found it impossible for me to know that I was do- 
ing that which would sooner or later bring shame 
and sorrow and degradation upon those innocent 
babes; and as they grew from year to year, their 
voices came, and they prattled about me ; it was 
only at distant intervals that I began to regard the 
future that was stretching far off in the distance 
before them, and which I must make either one of 
peace and pleasure, or one of despair and wretch- 
edness. 

And year after year I went on and on in this 
course of sin, and the light of my home went out. 
I had friends, friends in position, friends high 
in authority, who were true and steadfast to me; 
but they, too, were unable to paint to me any pic- 
ture that would allure me from the one I w r as paint- 
ing with my own hand in the horrible colors of hell 
itself. They would point me to a goal my bleared 
and confused vision would not see. They would 
endeavor to lift me up on plains of hope and sensi- 
bilities of ambition that I ceased to be sensible of 
as being worthy of achievement. They would en- 
deavor to control my appetite, and find it as useless 
as to bind with a cotton-woven string the raging 
lion of the arid and tempest-swept desert. 

I had at times my lucid intervals, when there 
would come memories of mother's prayer, of father's 
counsel, of wife's tears, and children's mute and 
helpless look; and I would say to myself, "I will 



Deliverance from Bondage. 301 

summon to my aid all the powers of my soul and 
manhood, and I will put under foot this monster of 
hideous mien that is dragging me down into degra- 
dation, into social ruin, and taking a fast hold upon 
my soul, and which sooner or later will drag it 
a trophy into hell." I would summon all my powers, 
only to find that I was weaker than a babe in the 
arms of so strong a passion as I had awakened. I 
spent hundreds of dollars in seeking the advice 
of physicians, and I purchased advertised effi- 
cient and warranted cures for drunkenness, and I 
was as faithful in the application of them as ever 
human being was, but it was all in vain ! There 
was no medicament in them to my aroused passion 
and appetite. 

I went so far that my wife, under the laws then ex- 
isting in Georgia, wrote through the judge of court in 
which I was the official short-hand reporter, a legal 
notice, couched in the language of the law, and had 
this notice served upon every dealer in liquors in 
the city of Atlanta, warning them, under penalty 
of the law, not to let me have their damning fluid 
over their counters ; and yet, outlaws as they were, 
disregarding my interest, disregarding my wife's 
pleadings and the tears of my children, and disre- 
garding the very law of the land, they still con- 
tinued to supply me with the horrible draught for 
which my inmost nature seemed craving with in- 
satiety. I even employed attendants and detectives, 
who followed me as I went about my business in 
the city, for the purpose of keeping these men who 
would not keep the law themselves from furnishing 



302 Sermons and Sayings. 

me with whisky, and yet I, in conjunction with 
them, was able to hoodwink and defy the detectives 
and law. 

Further and further, deeper and deeper I was 
sinking; I was getting hopeless for business; hope- 
less for all social standing ; hopeless for all the tem- 
poral interests of this world ; hopeless for eternity ; 
and in the very madness of my disordered brain, 
and in my very soul, there seemed at times no 
avenue of escape at all from this self-imposed bond- 
age except through insanity on one hand and through 
suicide on the other. 

I saw that my wife and children had given up 
all hope; they did not know, from day to day, how 
I would come home to them. They had seen me 
brought there day after day, time after time, insen- 
sible and unable to recognize them, from the influ- 
ence of this deadly and poisonous drug. They had 
seen me when I was brought in and laid on my bed, 
covered with blood, and it seemed as though my 
days were indeed numbered, and that I would soon 
fall in the midst of my iniquity. They had seen 
me when I was brought home with the wounds of 
the knife and pistol on my body, and they had 
heard the rumors from the streets and dives of the 
dangers with which I had been constantly surrounded 
of late. To them it seemed as though there was no av- 
enue, no loophole of escape for me from a terrible 
death. There was not the sign of hope or spirit beam- 
ing out from their faces. There were visions of 
uncertainty, of the sheriff to dispossess, of the heart- 
less landlord to distrain for rent, of the creditor to 



Deliverance from Bondage. 303 

come and take all. There was no future ahead of 
them except a future of impenetrable gloom through 
which seemed to come nothing but warnings of 
deeper woe and agonies yet to come. O, Lord, 
how good thou wast to me ; thou hast given me re- 
lief from that bondage at my seeking ! 

At last there came a time when I seemed to have 
reached the limit. Something strange impelled me 
to take my little children, as a loving act, an act it 
seemed to me of reparation for neglects of weeks 
preceding, and go upon the train to Cartersville, 
where Brother Jones w r as preaching to immense 
audiences, and from which the report had come 
that there were many and many hundreds, and even 
thousands, who were coming back into harmony 
with God. And as I sat upon the platform en- 
deavoring to take in stenography the words as they 
fell from his lips, it seemed to me that God had in- 
spired him to preach upon one certain line. He 
preached it with that faith which is his alone ; he 
preached it with that fidelity which is his distin- 
guishing characteristic; he preached with the ear- 
nestness and with the conviction that broke down 
the casements of my heart, and went home to it. 
When he had finished those words of Conscience, 
and of Record, and of God, the thought of the in- 
finite, the all-seeing, the ever-judging God, came 
home to me. 

I went away from there troubled in mind and 
soul. I went home and back into the devious ways, 
back into the bar-room, back into the open high- 
ways, back to the maddening pool, in order to get 



304 Sermons and Sayings. 

away from the torments I was suffering through an 
aw T akened conscience. But they would not leave 
me. I could find no solace where I had often found 
insensibility. I could find no relief in potations 
where I had often found indifference and capability 
to put on a cool exterior. There w^as nothing there 
to give me surcease from the sorrow in my bosom; 
and I went on until the second day, on Tuesday, at 
noon, I went into my library-room, fell upon my 
knees, buried my face in my hands, and pleaded 
with Christ that he would let me cling to his cross, 
lay down all my burdens and sins there, and be 
rescued and saved by his compassion ; that I might 
be washed in the stream flowing from his bleeding 
side, and that my sins, though they were scarlet, 
might be white as snow. 

I wrestled for four long hours in as much agony 
as I ever suffered. At the end of that time, when 
I had reached a conclusion, when I had come to 
understand that there was nothing of earth that 
could avail me, least of all with Christ, then I gave 
myself entirely to him, made an unconditional sur- 
render, and that moment he seized my soul. He 
dipped it in the stream and made it white and pure, 
and the light of heaven shone in upon me. In my 
new-found joy I rushed into the presence of wife 
and children. I proclaimed the glad tidings to 
their astonished ears, and they could hardly believe 
it, though they saw that some great revolution had 
taken place. They knew not whether it was a sur- 
render to Christ, or whether it had been a surrender 
to madness. But when I went out that evening I 



Deliverance from Bondage. 305 

had three thousand circulars printed and distributed 
all over Atlanta, telling the people I had found 
my Savior ; I had made peace with God, and that 
I would live a life of righteousness ever after, and 
desired to make a proclamation for once and irrev- 
ocable. They gathered at 7 o'clock upon the 
public streets that night, and there before them I 
proclaimed the fact, and, blessed be God, I have 
been proclaiming it ever since with increased 
joy, and with the certainty that my salvation is 
complete. 

Returning home I could see that Jesus had 
knocked at the tomb of my wife's life, as he did at 
that of Lazarus, and had called it forth in all its 
pristine strength and beauty, and its bloom and 
blossom have been scattered all along my pathway 
ever since. I could see that my children had found 
tongue to sing the joy and praise, and their hearts 
had been set attuned, as they never had been before, 
to the melodv of childhood, singing to the ears of 
fatherhood. I could see that there was gladness, 
wherever I went, upon the faces of friends and ac- 
quaintances; and when the news had gone abroad 
in the land, they who had known me abroad sent 
me their glad congratulations and their encourage- 
ment. Blessed be God that from the day he 
reached down and lifted me up from the miry pit, 
and established my feet upon the rock of Christ 
that is higher than we, I have been going on from 
joy to joy, a bird of liberty, singing the praises of 
my Redeemer. And so, having been thus saved 
and thus healed, I call upon you who are in that 



306 Sermons and Sayings. 

terrible bondage to seek relief of the same great 
Deliverer. 

What are we doing with ourselves? O how, 
when we look abroad in this land we can see how 
intemperance is becoming the great national vice, 
and how it is becoming the fell destroyer of so 
many thousands and thousands of our loved ones. 
What are we doing with these bodies of ours? 
" What, know ye not that your body is the temple 
of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have 
of God, and ye are not your own?" Fellow-men, 
let me bring you to the contemplation of the fact 
that these bodies of ours are the temples of the 
Holy Ghost, and that they were fashioned after the 
architecture of his great thought, by the great 
Being who is the architect of the universe. 

There is a touching incident connected with the 
death of TertulliaiVs favorite son. His companions 
were bearing his corpse to the cemetery upon their 
shoulders, and as they went along, occupied with 
their thoughts of sorrow and grief, they stumbled 
by the way, when the grief-stricken father, noticing 
it, called out to them : " Young men, beware how 
you walk; you bear upon your shoulders the temple 
of the Holy Ghost." So with us. We go about 
bearing with us the temple of the Holy Ghost, and 
we are recreant to our own creation, recreant to our 
own destiny, recreant to the great God w 7 ho fashioned 
us, recreant to him who made us his temples, when 
we defile these bodies of ours and ruin them with 
the licenses of our baser natures and our depraved 
appetites. 



Deliverance feom Bondage. 307 

One time Diogenes saw a young man going to a 
place of revelry where drinking was the custom, and 
from which men, who went in sober and rational 
beings, emerged besotted, not knowing their way. 
He seized upon the young man, carried him to his 
friends, and informed them that he had rescued their 
precious boy from a great and awful danger. So it 
would be well if we had friends who would thus 
rescue us. But there are times when friends, as I 
told you, can have no influence, and no Diogenes, 
however wise, however honest, however mindful of 
his neighbor, could restrain us from going into these 
places. But how many Diogeneses it would take to 
seize upon those that night after night and day after 
day are going into these places of danger and ulti- 
mate death in the city of Cincinnati ! O, let us seek 
to save ourselves through the only influence, the 
only medicament, and the only Physician that this 
universe affords us. 

What is intemperance doing? It is not neces- 
sary to marshal here before you the figures; you 
can see it all about you. Young man, you know 
that you started in your intemperate habits just as 
I did. You know what influences have led you; 
you know what ambitions you thought you could 
cultivate by listening to them ; you know how you 
have run out and gone into these places with like 
ideas of strength and ability to control yourselves 
just as I had. And now you are buoyant in the 
consciousness that you think that at any time you 
can slap on the brakes of your nature and save 
yourselves from degradation that you see upon the 



308 Sermons and Sayings. 

planes just below you. Beware, beware of that 
fatal cup. 

There are fathers here, middle-aged ; they know 
what intemperance will do. They are listening to 
me to-night, and they started on that road just as I 
started, but if they have not reached the same length 
to which I went they are on the high road to it. 
They can already know that they are not received 
where once they were welcome guests; they know 
that they are passed every day on the streets of 
Cincinnati by men who formerly regarded them 
with esteem and claimed them as friends. They 
know that avenues were once open to them of use- 
fulness, which are now closed upon them for- 
ever on account of their habits, their companionship, 
and their places of resort. They know that the 
happiness of their families, once complete, is now 
gone, apparently forever. They know that the 
blanched cheek of that wife, that the constant red- 
ness of eye when they enter home, that the fleeing 
children, are all evidences of the steady growth of 
the evil; and they have grown just in proportion 
as they have gone deeper and deeper into this 
besotted condition. 

There are old men here to-night who have led a 
long life, it seemed, of moderation, and who thought 
that they were exemplifying the ability of a man to 
drink and drink and drink, and yet preserve his 
manhood and his honest position ; but they can see 
that their excesses are not only sapping the founda- 
tions of their health ; they can feel that they are un- 
timely gray; they can feel that they have diseases 



Deliverance from Bondage. 309 

in them that they would not have had but for their 
intemperance; and they can see before them no life 
that is leading them on and brightening their way 
as they go. But they are seeing, upon the other 
hand — and if they are honest with themselves they 
will confess it to their souls — that they are losing 
the powers, and that sooner or later they too must 
sink into the lowest depths of degradation, and be 
untimely cut off and go to hell and everlasting death. 

Families and individuals — cities prostrated ! 
There is nothing that is so glaring about them as 
intemperance, which sweeps over them like the 
storm over a forest, day after day and night after 
night. Thank God that my city of Atlanta has re- 
deemed herself under the white banner of temper- 
ance, with the cross of Christ on it. Thank God, 
she will shine as a city set upon a hill, giving a 
light to this nation. Ohio to-day is giving full 
liberty to the whisky dealers to debauch and damn 
the most precious sons of your loins and .your 
household. 

God can not bless a people who are thus recreant 
to themselves and thus recreant to their duties both 
to humanity and to God. Thank God that old 
Georgia is rapidly redeeming herself, and that after a 
while she will still be lying in the very apron of this 
nation, a State redeemed from the tyranny of alcohol, 
and that she will raise her banner and commend it 
in its purity to every State in this nation, as it 
blazons with the legend of Wisdom, Justice, and 
Moderation under the broad and glittering arch of 
the Constitution. 



310 Sermons and Sayings. 

Nearly twenty-five years ago misguided men in 
the South heard the shot upon Fort Sumter that 
awakened this entire nation, and led to reform, and 
led to liberties, and led to the release of slaves from 
bondage, led to what no man had contemplated as 
being capable of realization. It marshaled the most 
impregnable arms of this continent, and that shot 
reverberated all through civilization. I tell you 
that whatever were the disasters of war, it struck 
the shackles from six million slaves; but to-day in 
a holier and grander cause, by the approving smile 
of God, old Georgia has fired a gun upon the Sum- 
ters of sin and intemperance in this country that 
will arouse this whole nation; and we will batter 
down these forts of intemperance, whether they are 
in Cincinnati, Chicago, or New York. The army 
of God in this nation is on the march. And you 
may listen here; but if you have not the courage 
and the Christian zeal, we will come and break down 
the barriers ; we will pound the demon of alcohol, 
and we will release you from this terrible bondage. 

In the midst of influences like this, with these 
facts staring them in the face, statesmen of this 
country are too cowardly to seize upon this great 
question and make it a question of public policy 
for the Christian people. Politicians go wandering 
about among the lower classes, and talk and rant 
about personal liberty and sumptuary laws as though 
they had a right to give laws to these people, when 
they are only seeking popularity and applause from 
the foolish and depraved. 

Scientists are disputing and debating, when all 



Deliverance from Bondage. 311 

history and all true science have demonstrated that 
no curse is greater upon a people than to have the 
saloons and the dissemination of these deadly com- 
pounds in the community. These whisky dealers 
are outlaws; they are against the law; they are 
the anarchists of the nineteenth century. 

Churches meet in conventions, in conferences, in 
assemblies, in synods, and pass resolutions on the 
subject of temperance, and yet the very ministers, 
it seems, in places are unwilling to enforce the 
declarations and laws of their own Churches against 
their own members, notwithstanding that right here 
in Cincinnati ministers of the Gospel have been 
disrobed through its influences and Churches have 
been debauched. And so our very rulers, law- 
makers, public men, and public teachers are thus 
indifferent or cowardly in the face of an evil like 
that, while the red-winged and fiery-eyed Zamael 
of these distillers and brewers of the country is 
sweeping over this land and laying low in horrible 
death the first-born of American homes, as the 
angel did at the command of God in the land of 
Pharaoh centuries ago. And every man and every 
woman, especially in America, has a direct per- 
sonal interest in seeing the banner of Christ tri- 
umph over the sign of the beer-barrel and the 
whisky-worm. 

Is there any thing needed to arouse the hu- 
manity and the patriotism of you people to the ini- 
quities that are being thus committed in your 
midst, and the sad havoc that is being made in 
your homes? If I to-night could call around 



312 Sermons and Sayings. 

me a staff of bailiffs and furnish them with sub- 
poenas, and could send them into the streets, and into 
the back yards, and into the slums and alleys and 
tenement districts of this city and its respectable 
and high-toned suburbs, and from the palaces of 
your richest down to the humblest huts and dens 
of your poorest could bring the widows and the 
orphans that whisky has made, and array them 
here in grand mass by the thousands, with their 
weeping eyes, with their dismal recollection, with 
their mourning, with their hearts crushed and bleed- 
ing, they would say to you, "If you are men, 
in the name of God and humanity rise in your might 
and drive this monster out before he destroys and 
ruins your homes too." 

Let us do this. Let us rely and trust and work 
upon the promises of Christ, and be true to our- 
selves and true to humanity and true to the great 
God who made us. May God bless us all ! 



THE END. 



